Showers and Swallows

A mixture of sunshine and showers today! Waiting for some north/easterly wind to make the sea watching more interesting. Had two Minke's a few days back but nothing since. Nothing much to report so here are a few pics. Enjoy.

  

 

Parent and young Swallow (4 fledged from the lighthouse)

Showers at sea

Twinspot carpet on common/heath spotted?

What's kickin off...

So what's been kickin off since I last updated this beast...

The Auk's have gone (apart from one or two). The cliffs are now empty and quiet (apart from the Kittiwakes, Shags and Fulmars).

I’ve been busy doing our annual vegetation monitoring here on the reserve… 28 random 2x2m squares pphewww!

Sea watch season is here… a quick hour this evening produced 15 Common scoter, 16 Black headed gulls, a single Bonxie and three Porpoise N and 6 Sandwich tern S. Pretty quiet so far.

Spotted flycatchers are feeding young by the office and a female Mandarin is on the loch. Not much else occurring bird wise at the moment.

Here are a few pics from the last couple of days…. Enjoy

Brew up at any opportunity!

Meadow Brown

Hare's Foot Clover Trifolium arvense

CAB showing well at Linlithgow Loch

Micro... ideas welcome...

Barred Red

 

A picture speaks a thousand words...

A picture speaks a thousand words... making this blog over 8000 words long… (that should make up for my lack of recent postage). 

Pics from St Abbs...

Mipit in the rain.. sums up the summer rather well!

Sheltering from the rain

Fulmar

Shag

 

Kittiwake and chicks

Pics from a recent trip south of the boarder to sunny suffolk...

Spotty flys

Hobby

Hobby food... some dirty southern dragonfly... anyone id?

Razorthrills!

Apologies for not updating sooner but it’s full on middle of the seabird breeding season at the moment so I’ve been rather busy counting and monitoring etc.

The camera is now fixed thanks to the good chaps at Nikon (although it shouldn’t have broken in the first place).

Here are a few of todays Razorbills.

 

Aren’t Razorbills just pure beasts!

Recent bird highlights:

Red-backed shrike ad male 21/05

Long-eared owl in the walled garden 25/05

5 Spotted flycatcher around mire loch 30/05

Moths:

Finally a little more variety with Marbled Coronet, Shears and Silver Y. all being recent additions to the list.

Butterflies:

Things are starting to pick up with the butterflies too, the first Red Admiral, Dark Green Fritillary and Wall Browns have all been seen in the last week or two. Good numbers of Small Copper, Green Veined White and Small White are also present.  

Been a while…

Birds to report;

The star of the show (the 10 min show) came on the 2^nd when I happend across an adult summer Wood sandpiper on Bell hill scrape… what a cracking little bird and a cracking scrape, will be checking regularly from now on. Below are a few record shots taken though a scope with my mobile… wish I’d had the DSLR

Migrants on the move, in no order:

Common Sandpiper, 1 Mire loch today

Wheatear, 16+ mostly around Kirk hill… will they breed?

Ring ouzel peak of 5 on the 27^th Apr 

Lots of Whitethroat, Chiff, Blackcap, Sedge w and Willow w, all scattered around the Mire loch, many seen nest building. 

Swallows are getting busy in and out of the barns and a couple of House martin have passed though over the last week. No swifts yet here.

Breeders:

Seabirds. The cliffs are stacked full of seabirds; Guillemots, Razorbills, Kittiwakes, Fulmars etc… all looking very busy (very few puffin). Many of the shags are already on young and the first Guillemots eggs were found on the 14^th Apr. Kittiwake eggs expected any day now.

On the Mire loch. Coot and Moorhen both have young but will the swans produce after a few years failure?

A quick look around Millers moss last night, found a pair of Little grebe and a pair of Oystercatcher as well as the usual Swans.

Ringed GBBG:

A dead ringed Great black-backed gull was found at Petticowick on the 6^th May and hats off to Stavanger Museum for getting back to me in a single day! (must be a record in itself). The bird was ringed in the nest on Hornøya Island, Norway last year. Hornøya island is off the north east coast of Norway, which means the bird travelled 2267km and was 326 days old.

Moths:

Very little to report, Hebrew character and Clouded drab still dominate the small totals. 

Butterflies:

The only recent records are of Small copper, Green veined white and Wall brown.

I may get out in the next day or two and add some more photos to this blog but looking at the weather I may not!!! Also my camera needs to go in for repair. Pooo!