By Thomas Weston
Today’s blog is a lot shorter and sweeter. Having lost my camera in Millcombe the other day and not really realising until yesterday, it was great to have found it in lost property in the evening and back with me for today’s census. If you were the person who handed it in, thank you so much!
Stonechat on census by Thomas Weston
The weather was lovely and sunny with a nice northernly breeze to begin but this quickly turned into wind, rain and grey cloud throughout, with on and off sunshine up to the end of census. However, to begin, walking through Millcombe yielded the most birds with breeding birds in full voice again – see yesterday’s blog for some of our breeding bird highlights too as they were very much the same today. It is always great to note where the males are singing, as you never know we may get some juveniles from the areas they are singing too! Some nice new breeding evidence came from our Stonechats, surely they are nesting somewhere near to where we spotted this female.
A nice highlight for the morning was the warblers. They have had a mixed year so far. The Chiffchaffs never really had a passage and overall, it has been an incredibly poor spring for them albeit two birds singing in Millcombe was nice. Likewise, Willow Warbler peaked on a single day, but that was it. Numbers for this species have been really concerningly low, although three singing birds on territories is a small win. Moreover, Blackcap, have had a one-day peak so far this year, but other than that where have they been!? One today was a highlight for being how scarce they have been so far. In more positive news, Whitethroat have had a good year so far with a couple of ‘big’ days and today three singing birds in Millcombe was nice to hear, but ideally, we will find some more males on territory.
A personal highlight of census was the seemingly constant passing of seabirds that seem to be happening at the moment. Seabirds included Manx Shearwaters, Kittiwakes, Gannets, Razorbills, and Guillemots, including some nice feeding flocks and frenzies.
Manx Sheartwater evening by Tara
I got back in good time for my main role of today which was Tavern. However, in true conservation style, after finishing a busy shift that went up to 9pm, the team led a Manx Shearwater evening whereby ~25 visitors joined us for a night on the cliffs. After waiting for it to get fully dark, which included getting soaked by passing squally showers, we ended up showing the public three Manx Shearwaters in the hand. All birds were newly ringed, and biometrics taken before being released, hoping to be seen again in many more years to come! A long and successful day.