Over the past two days, we have seen a wonderful increase in the seabirds piling onto the Island's cliff and slopes. Seabird surveys have produced super counts of Kittiwake in Jenny's Cove and Aztec Bay in particular, with 172 seen on the 22nd and 149 on the 23rd. 2566 Guillimot were counted on the cliffs at Jenny's Cove on the 22nd, all bar 116 of these crowding on the ledges! Also on the 22nd, 699 Razorbill were seen, thanks to brilliant Island coverage from Benjamin's Chair to the North Light. Puffin numbers are gradually increasing, with a count of 268 on the 22nd, 134 of these on land at Jenny's Cove. Some very muddy individuals have clearly been busy excavating their earthy burrows! The biggest Fulmar count of the year appeared on the 23rd, this a total of 134 birds, 87 of which were on the Gannet's Rock colony. The Bird Observatory team have enjoyed watching courtiship behaviour between seabird pairs at their nests, such as gentle preening and billing rituals.
First Manx Shearwater Egg of the year, 22 April. J ParkerDuring a check of the Manx Shearwater nest boxes at the Old Light Colony on the 22nd, the first egg of the season was found! In addition to this, a fantastic effort was put into catching Manx Shearwater that night, and into the early hours of the next morning! The team processed 111 birds, 67 of which were retraps, the three oldest originally ringed as adults between 2010 and 2012.
The wader passage theme continues with another 4 Whimbrel sighted on the 22nd, matching the count on the 21st. The largest Oystercatcher count of the year has reached 30 individuals, this on the 23rd.
Whimbrel in flight, 22 April. P Holt
Another big Swallow passage day arrived on the 23rd. Thanks to timed counts by visiting birders, 925 were recorded in total, the 2nd biggest count of the year! Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff are still not quite piling into the Island in as high numbers as expected for this season, so we are anticipating a big push any day now. Sedge Warbler are slowly increasing, with 7 ringed in Millcombe on the 22nd. A cheerful sound about Millcombe both mornings has been supplied by reeling Grasshopper Warbler.
Spots of exciting migrants include a single Yellow Wagtail at Quarter Wall Copse on the 22nd, one Redwing heard in flight Millcombe on the 23rd (the first since the 14th), and two more Greenland Wheatear candidates on the Airfield on the 23rd. Sightings of the Hooded Crow were noted again on both days. The evening roosts of Linnet around the Tavern were counted at around 40 birds on both evenings and are such a beautiful sight in the warm, dimming sun.
Finally having a rain-free, warm, moonless night on 21st, we were able to put out the moth trap in Millcombe. This reaped a small but lovely catch (on the morning of the 22nd) of 10 moths of 6 species. Early Grey, Early Thorn, Angle Shades, Marbled Coronet, Clouded Drab, Brown Silver-lines. Small numbers of Red Admiral and Large White butterflies are being spotted Island wide.