Raining Turd(u)s

So it’s been the proverbial calm after the storm of October. That’s not say that nice ornitho-visuals have don’t been witnessed, more that there’s been no rare to provoke a post. I have, however accumulated some pictoral happenings from the last few days.

Lovely down at Porthloo shetlered from the breeze, you may recognise this scene...

Moths have been high on the agenda with 5 traps running nightly in the hope of scoring from all these favourable SSE winds and warm temperature. The initial flurry was stimulating with Vestal amongst a plethora of commoner stuff including the usual Rusty Dot Pearl, Rush Veneer, Turnip Moth, White-speck, Delicate, L-album Wainscot and Silver Y. Since then it’s been much quieter, probably due to the full moon (distracting moths from our attractant lights) and clear cool nights. But here’s some resident/migrant moth stuff cos they're large and in charge:

Mottled Umber

Vestal

Rush Veneer

Calybites phasianipinnella

Birdwise I cant really be arsed to some up so many days but will attempt now. A large arrival of thrushes occurred on the 8^th with 300+ Fieldfare, a ‘fair few’ Redwing, hundreds of Chaffinch, small numbers of Skylark, Siskin and a single Brambling coupled with a notable increase in Starling – presumably indicating some transcontinental movement. Other bits around garden involved 3 Sparrowhawks together and female Merlin.

My best efforts on the highly active Yellow-browed Warbler in the dusky twilight.

Afternoon strolls saw a Yellow-browed Warbler calling at Rosehill with 4 Firecrest in the general vicinity while Carreg Dhu went back to classic Oct’11 styles holding an extremely bright Yellow-browed Warbler that was carried on feeding right up to dusk – a new arrival too? 2 Firecrests were bounding around there too.

It was no easier today in better light...

Kingfishers have become more conspicuous over the past couple of days with birds at Porth Minick on the 7th and Dump Clump on the 9th while more Firecrests were bigging themselves up at Carn Gwarval and Higher Moors, think I’ve seen 9 different Firecrest in 2 days! But am that skilled that I have zero photographs to show for it. But I did photo a Black Redstart, which are numbering about 1 per beach (on certain beaches) on Marys.

I'll let the cool people talk about covert fringing blah blah blah

The only other highlights have been 2 late Swallows today trying to be rare (been around a day or 2) and the first Long-eared Owl (for us) over the garden moth trap!

St. Agnes Lesser Whitethroat

Just a Friday night quickie... http://www.birds.kz/Sylvia%20curruca%20jaxartica/indexe.html check that linkage for ideas on the Agnes Lesser Throat - jaxartica anyone?

Ps looks like the Great Reed Warbler was seen this afternoon in the sallows between the Lower Moors hides - beast

Sunstep

Another brilliantly sunny and vaguely mild day today, following a pretty good one yesterday where a wander towards Hugh Town saw a Whinchat and 2 Black Redstarts on Porthmellon and another 2 ‘Black Reds’ on Town Beach while 3 Raven flew over (the most I’ve seen together still my return – but I think there’s 4 kicking about) . Old Town churchyard felt rare but provided only singularities of Chiffchaff and Blackcap form.

Today felt good. Probably because it was sunny and still – so felt good to be in! The moth traps contained more migrants however diversity was low with 68 Rusty Dot Pearl, 4 Rish Veneer and 11 White-speck. Post trapping the temperature increased drawing out the male Red-veined Darter but besides that the garden was quiet: 1 White Wagtail, 2 Skylark, 1 Swallow, 1 Chiffchaff and 1 Raven.

Red-green Carpet

Angle Shades

 

Red-veined Darter on Novermber 4th!

News of a new Wilson’s Snipe down at Lower Moors tickled my fancy so I popped down late morning for a gander. On route to the hides there was plenty of Chiffchaff and 2 Reed Bunting calling to each other near the Hilda Quick hide. A male Red-veined Darter was also along this bit of track but was way too flightly for pics unfortunately. Uponreaching the ISBG The Wilson’s Snipe showed well but semi-distantly with some nice comparative Common Snipe - with only bins I couldnt get all the features but it looked as good as the one thats been hanging around this autumn (whether or not this was the first or second bird I dont know! Looked different but I havnt seen the initial bird for a couple weeks) while a Greenshank jibbed out around the scrape:

Wilson's Snipe thing

This Greenshank was actually more entertaining than the Snipe!

Heading back out the hide I heard the ever present banging of tools echoing across from Old Town..no wait, that’s a bird! The heavy acro check/tik wasn’t in Old Town but in the reeds, it must be the Great Reed! And low and behold there it was sitting in a sallow around 50yds away where I quickly rattled off 4 record shots while broadcasting the news.

Great Reed Warbler (presumably the ringed bird) Lower Moors

This absolute bruiser of a warbler seemed unsettled, but inquisitive as it flew from bush to bush, closer and closer until it popped up in the reeds 10ft away! Just me and the bird, fantastic! It then carried on along it’s course moving across the track and towards the Hilda Quick hide where I lost it but could still hear it, then it stopped and totally vanished – cue the arrival of birders, bloody typical!

On my way back through Lower Moors 2 Yellow-browed Warblers were having a nice call to each other while the Dusky Warbler for once, showed well and then disappeared Great Reed styley. All I can say is that’s the best 2 hours spent I’veat Lower Moors pretty much ever!

Halloween Monster!

Okay so Halloween over, not that I really noticed it occurring – well until a monster hit a net at Porthellick! An early morning call had us rushing down to the ringing station for some ubergrip in the hand Great Reed Warbler action. And what a ball blowing monster it was! Aged adult (and checked for being anything even rarer) it showed well in the hand and, once released in nearby Elms before vanishing. Cheers to Jim and Jaclyn who extracted, processed and gave us some grand views of this monster.

Jaclyn doing the honours.

Check that wear.

WHAT A MONSTER! awesome.

You would not want to start on this one - proper 'rum bugger'.

Emarginate this.

Lovely morning for a Great Reed...

Birds were particularly evident in the morning sunshine with tons of Chiffchaff around Porthellick to complement the Teal and 3 Greenshank sunbathing on the pool. But most surprising was the Whinchat (and Great Spotted Woodpecker) at Higher Moors. Holy Vale was just as packed with Passeriformes including Yellow-browed Warber, 24 Chiffchaff and some Goldcrest.

3 Species, 1 cup.

Late Whinchat. Stonk

The sunny relatively still condition obviously tempted some movement with 6 Skylark, a few Redwing (mainly heard) and 5 Siskin passing overhead. Garden wise the Common Buzzard was sitting on ‘its’ branch, while a White Wagtail was doing its thang. Other avian shapes were a female Merlin at Trenoweth.

Falco...

But today was always going to be about the little chitonous buggers the insects and we weren’t disappointed! Overnight the moth traps caught a bumper haul of  migrants among the 25 species, 241 moths - including 105 Rusty Dot Pearl, 2 Rush Veneer, 1 Palpita vitrealis 1 Turnip Moth, 1 Dark Sword-grass, 4 Delicate, 12 White-speck and 3 Silver Y.

Insect weather here on Scilly

But the best was yet to come (as always) with a Red-veined Darter in the garden and round at Innisidgen along with 25+ Silver Y, 10 Red Admiral, 3 Peacock, 1 Painted Lady and a frustratingly brief Blue butterfly sp.  

Not another Red-veined Darter pic...

Peacock loving the Granite.

Painted Lady showing us her abdomen.

A michelin star of a tasty atlantic low is hitting tomororw, but until then it's SE winds and warm temperatures. I suspect more bird and insect madness is on route. Long-tailed Shrike and Southern Migrant Hawker. Yes please.

Walking on Water

Yes that’s right – I can walk on water! Well actually ground so saturated with rainfall that proportionately it is water not soil. Said rain, that has dominated Scilly yesterday and today stopped the 2 Yellow-browed Warblers and Common Whitethroat that were down at Lower Moors from going anywhere, and the 16 Chiffchaff in the are seemed to agree.

Spot the Yellow-browed Warbler

Where's the Whitethroat? Answers on postcard.

Migrant numbers in the traps were down (along with resident numbers) due to a breezy night although Rusty Dot Pearl and White-speck both hit double figures and single of Rush Veneer and Delicate indicate some alright stuff’s still about.

Garden rounds produced very little today in the deteriorating conditions so I wont dwell. As the rain increased this afternoon I took the opportunity to get some report work done but mid-afternoon a Scaup that had been on St. Agnes in the morning turned up on Porthellick. So I walked upstairs and looked down the scope, and…there it was. Garden tick! Now I know it’s not all about ‘ticks’ but if it’s there you’d be stupid not to bag it.

For good measure we popped down the pool to have a closer look. Suffice to say it’s Halloween monster! If you’re familiar with a duck called an Eider, imagine a male Eider in eclipse (or google it) and you’ll get an idea of this thing looked like!

Rain stops play

So the clocks went back, everybody gained an hour and dawn regressed back to ‘early’ ish. With this in mind, as well as knowledge of gradually worsening weather conditions a good kick about was on and popping this am.

The moth traps held 69 migrants consisting of mainly Rusty Dot Pearl and White-speck but numbers were bolstered with Rush Veneer, Dark Sword-grass, Pearly Underwing, L-album Wainscot and Delicate.

Fungi - but which one?!?

Post Lepidoptera madness garden rounds produced the Common Buzzard (in it’s tree), 1 White Wagtail, 1 Grey Wagtail, 1 Skylark, 1 Redwing, 1 Chiffchaff, 3 Goldcrest and 2 Raven while a Firecrest was still in Carreg Dhu -  basically not much was moving or new in. However the silence was shattered by a lovely Red-breasted Flycatcher twitch down in Holy Vale.

Fully Sibed. Red-breasted Flycatcher being typical.

After waiting and wandering for what seemed like months the bird zipped into some Sallows and showed pretty well on and off for a good 45minutes – acting proper Siberian and skulky. Just before we left a Yellow-browed Warbler popped into the same field of view as the ‘RB Flicker’ making a fairly novel combo (with other good ones the Lesser Yellowlegs + Northern Waterthrush this autumn and the epic Chimney Swift + Cliff Swallow combo a few years back).

My homage to 90's bird photography - grainy, grimey but ultimately atmospheric  (in my case just crap due to poor light, skill etc).

And a couple that actually reflect this lovely Red-breasted Flycatchers true colours.

Also in Holy Vale were a good 10+ Chifchaff and 6 Goldcrest with more in Higher Moors, but not many more! A hike up to Giants Castle on the off chance the Snow Bunting was chilling still proved fruitless but a Kestrel with baby rat was better than just a Kestrel I guess. The airfield was equally dead with single Wheatear (Northern) and 4 Skylark the only notable..no, the only birds seen.

Just wait till these Atlantic lows hit Wednesday... it’s going to get messy.