Stuck in the middle

The last two days have been alittle unsettled with sun, cloud, rain, wind, poor vivibility and almost every wind direction without North in it. Basically we’re stuck in the middle of a load of ‘proper random’ weather!

This predictably has meant that most stuff has swaggered off southwards (presumably) leaving us with a few Wheatear and Willow Warbler while Swallows carry on dribbling through.

Waders are still dominating with Dunlin, Purple Sand, Common Sand, Bar-tailed Godwit and Whimbrel being the highlights. Other ‘big stuff’ is about with 2 Bonxies pounding low over Inner Farne while an Arctic pranced around offshore.

Insects have also been sparse (perhaps demonstrating how reliant the Farnes is on dispersers/migrants from further afield). However Red Admiral, Painted Lady and Small White are all still pretty numerous.

Work on the islands habitat is ongoing with lots of muddy edged, semi-vegetated pools ready for common, scarce and rares of all shapes and sizes. No photos today really so here’s a picture of the moth trap in action…

Fingers crossed for tomorrow!

On the waterfront

Love is in the air...the breeding birds might have buggered off but it asnt offput these lovely Silver Y

So today was my day off and naturally I spent it doing WeBs and generally loafing in, on, and around the Farnes natural stuff.

Clear but mild conditions overnight meant most birds departed but 1 Whinchat, 1  Wheatear, 1 Whitethroat and 1 Willow Warbler remained. The variable westerly did bring down some Swallows which flopped through in a steady trickle all day.

But as the title and first sentence insinuate today was more about those long-legged Macdaddies, the waders. At hide tide we ‘zoded off’ around the Inner Group systemically counting all wetland bird species as we went. Passage here is getting going with nothing hugely amazing however 6 Bar-tailed Godwit, 2 Whimbrel, 1 Greenshank, 3 Dunlin and 3 Common Sand were more notable while commoner species such as Turnstone, Oyc and Knot numbered hundreds and other like Redshank and ‘Purps’ (Purple Sandpiper) numbered tens.

Common Sandpiper - 100% uncut bob action.

Beside the ornithofest the lepids (‘cool’ term for butterflies) were dominating in the hot, sunny conditions with 60 Red Admiral, 11 Painted Lady, 6 Small Tortoiseshell, 1 Peacock, 7 Meadow Brown and 3 White Species made for entertaining strolls in the absence of our recent bird migrants.

On the subject of night time antics I tried some night photography of Bamburgh and seahouses..here’s our view every night…beautiful!

Flipside

The golden easterlies subsided overnight giving way to SW winds and sunshine by dawn. This didn’t seem promising but a jolly round Inner Farne pleasantly racked up some lingering bits, while this evening brought a couple of newbies.

So close yet so far..a Whinchat ponders the mile between it and Bamburgh Castle on the mainland.

Lingering nugs included 2 Wheater, 2 Whinchat, 1 Sedge Warbler, 4 Willow Warbler (1 in off the sea…so new I guess) and 1 Pied Fly. But despite the unfavourable winds (however a change in direction can bring birds down, but another story for another time) migration continued with highlight of the day being a Wood Sandpiper that flew low west calling! Lovely!

Visual migration continued throughout the day with 13 Swallow and 2 Swift north and 2 House Martin south overland. Over the big, swell fringed North Sea 18 Wigeon went north while 269 Golden Plover went west.

Other interest involved 1 Common Sandpiper, 19 Curlew, 2 Whinbrel and 160+ Knot chilling around having a cheeky peck here or there.

With the humidity hanging in the glorious sun haze filled air a walk produced Grasshopper Warbler and Whitethroat – both new (or overlooked, especially in the case of Groppy McGee). Historically tomorrow has held 2 Greenish Warbler, Thrush Nightingale, Icky, Bluethroat etc on the Farnes so lets hope these flipside winds keep giving.

Whinchat loving life on the Veg Patch wall.

The Farnes poolige is primed for mud peckingrare, our water table is looking great at the moment and with lots of exposed mud when will the Wilson Phal pitch down here? (If you dont know what one is then search female Wilsons Phalarope - it will blow your eyes out!).

See ou tomorrow.

The Hangover

Well here we are, the proverbial hangover, or day after the one before.

There wasn’t much (or anything) new on the land with 2 Wheatear, 2 Whinchat, 2 Garden Warbler, 2 Willow Warbler and 1 Pied Flycatcher all providing better views in the dryer conditions.

Pied Fly chilling in the sun.

Willow Warbler 'looking rare'.

However the sea was where the actions at, with an incontinent trickle of birds passing including 5 Wigeon, 4 Teal, 8 Common Scoter and 5 Arctic Skua. Later in the day wader passage reared it’s frustratingly distant head with 1 Greenshank west, 37 Golden Plover west while the shores held 180 Knot, 2 Whimbrel, 8 Curlew and 4 Purple Sandpipers.

Warden life has changed a lot since my last update on these matters with management work being the main occupation currently. That is strim, strim, rake, strim, rake, discuss, strim, rake. But it’s looking awesome and we’re making great progress (I think!).

The courtyard is sorted, bar the thistle which have been left for nectar and seed.

Check out our piles....of grass. Pied Fly has used it already, will the next species be Red-backed Shrike?

Having been closed due to bad weather (and therefore cut off from civilisation if you can call it that cf riots), today was extremely busy with lots of people eagerly running off boats ready for Puffins – there isn’t any. This makes the job of entertaining them pretty difficult! But there’s plenty to see birdwise in the form of the aforementioned migrant species; however they’re perhaps less charismatic than our parrot-billed friends.

Under-rated:  Red Admiral underwing.

Tonight I trap moths with big light (said in caveman voice). Wonder what we’ll get.

August Rain

Well look at that, two posts in a day?! Can it be? F*ck yeah. We knew something would happen today, our weather fixation led us to veritably jibb out over the forecast E/NE winds with heavy rain showers. This sort of weather (for those who aren’t obsessed like me) is pretty good at sweeping birds across the North Sea from Europe, Scandanavia and if we’re lucky Siberia while the rain causing them to make landfall as soon as possible.

Now today’s conditions weren’t ideal but boy did they produce!

A walk this morning produced a single Willow Warbler. But by lunchtime the totals had grown to 3 Whinchat, 2 Wheatear, 2 Garden Warbler, 1 Sedge Warbler, 1 Whitethroat, 3 Willow Warbler, 2 Pied Flycatcher. While a Greenshank and Green Sand passed over together along with a grounded Common Sand.

Recently we have been hard at work creating a lovely heterogeneous (varied) habitat complex for the different species that will pass through. All this work was well placed and it was great to see the different species using the various ‘niches’ provided.

News of birds on Staple Island saw us hitting the outer group like SE swell, scoring with Storm Petrel as we crossed the sound. Staple held 2 Grasshopper Warbler, 1 Garden Warbler, 2 Whitethroat, 1 Sedge Warbler, 2 Willow Warbler, 1 Pied Flycatcher and another Common Sand.

 

To the east on the mighty Brownsman birds were less numerous but Tree Pipit was a great addition to the Farnes day list while Whinchat, Whitethroat and 3 Willow Warblers brought some warblish diversity.

Further to the east at Longstone lighthouse we had 3 Wheatear, 1 Reed Warbler, 2 Garden Warbler, 7 Willow Warbler and another Pied Flycatcher…and this is mid-August! Man oh man this autumn’s going to be EPIC.

It was perhaps optimistic setting the moth trap last night but 174 moths of 19 species don’t lie (that’s good by the way!). New for the year was Common Carpet and possibly Square-spot Dart (pending confirmation). Immigrants were few and far between but 1 Dark Sword-grass and 2 Silver Y were better than nothing!

Here’s to tomorrow.

Out of the ether….

Well. Hello. Er, so. Eeeerrrrm it’s been a while. Again. Apologies for my general slackness in updating the blog, to be honest I’ve been out birding, mothing and enjoying life so finding time to sit and upload words and pics through a horrifically slow dongle connection has been low on the priority list.

BUT tis the season of change and there’s a lot to say, and over the coming days and weeks I will hopefully get updates on the go ‘reggers’ to cripple, grip and molest your perceptive capacities.

Right first off birds: The Farnes breeders have nearly all departed, with the last Arctic Tern fledging yesterday while Sandwich Terns remain in very small numbers while all the Auks have f*cked off!

Roseates are heading orf too.

Fulmar chick looking cute.

However as the breeders depart, the migrants arrive! On the sea some good northerly storms at the beginning of August produced good numbers of Storm Petrels, Sooty Shearwaters, Manxies as well as Skuas of both Arctic and Great shapes. A night of Petrel ringing at this time also produced a Leach’s which in the hand near enough disabled most of the team through chronic griptigue.

Stormy getting the treatment.

Leach's eat stormy for breakfast.

Passerine migrants have been thinner on the ground but weirdly a NW storm on 7^th August produced a bonus fall consisting of Whinchat, Tree Pipit (2), Whitethroat, Willow Warbler (3) on Inner Farne. While non-passerine migrants have been repped by Merlin and Black Tern. as well as a 'good few' waders.

Can you find the Chlidonia?

Cheeky Knot.

We then battled the large swell to bird Brownsman, and oh was it worth it! Upon arrival me and Ciaran put our bins up and simultaneously locked onto a stonking Wood Warbler! Also on the island was Whitethroat, Garden Warbler, Willow Warbler (8) and Wheatear. But Woody stole the show giving prolonged views just chilling on the wall truly proving it doesn’t have to be rare to totally blow your balls off!

How good is that!!!

Along with migration, the Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies – but you knew that, right?) are also picked right up. Moth Trapping has occurred regularly recently and to date 2314 moths of 81 species have been recorded while another 14 species have been added by casual sightings such as checking nectar sources. Migrant species are disappointingly low in numbers but the locals are maintaining interest. Here’s some pics:

Dark Spinach

Ear Moth species.

Garden Tiger

Wormwood Pug (Ling form for the geeks).

For the haters - Mircos are beautiful! Eudonia lineola

Plain Pug

Six-striped Rustic

Marbled Beauty

July Highflyer

Butterflies, which started slow, are also appearing in larger numbers with a purple patch on the 5/6^th August producing 11 species (none are resident on the islands). The hightlights
were Dark Green Fritillary (8^th for Farnes), Comma (3^rd for Farnes), Meadow Brown and Speckled Wood which were all new for the year while Painted Ladies and Red Admirals were present in large numbers. Stick these pics in your facial space:

Small Tortoiseshell with my house (Pele Tower) in the background.

Dark Green Fritillary - just!

Beauty!

Painted Lady

There's currently a decent fall ongoing so we'll speak later, yeah?

 

Long time no speak!

Que barrage of excuses about how busy life on the Farnes is, or how slow mobile internet?
Well excuses about not excusing myself aside alot has happened in the past month!

Ofcourse on the islands birds are leaving by the ton, progeny (young) in tow either eastish if you're an auk or southish if your a tern. However I speak ambiguously as I am currently away from the chosen land on holiday. But Farnes first.

The last month has been very m uch bipolar with hundreds of thousands of seabirds getting on with things professionally while migrants or annomalies have been sparse. Highlights for me are Black Tern (an adult chilled with the Arctics giving 'crippling' views). While Spoonbill, Roseate Terns, Manx Shearwatwers, Arctic and Great Skuas have all seasoned the quality Farnes flavour.

Besides birds moth-trapping is ongoing with a few nice things inclduing Hummingbird Hawkmoth (2) found by Jamie in the info centre, while Plain Pug in the trap was new for me. Pics to follow when I can find the enthusiasm to filter through 20+gb of data!

Right...current affairs; Scilly. Here, also, it's quiet although there have been bits and pieces seen including my holiday highlight this morning. A Large Tortoiseshell!

Whilst walking back from running errands in town I though I'd indulge my nerdy side with some 'entymology', basically jibbing at Butterflies undeniable beauty. In doing so I discovered this beautiful beast, new for me (and most others) and first in a long long time on Scilly.

More piccy stuff in the next few days.....