11th, The daily gull roost on Crabby beach is giving good opportunities to record the birds ring numbers. Paul & Catherine Veron had 25 Gull ring reads during the afternoon including a Danish-ringed Lesser black backed Gull. I visited around 6pm and added a further 10 different ring-reads to the already impressive total. Paul & Catherine had also seen 2 second year Mediterranean Gulls and an adult Yellow legged Gull at the same location. During my afternoon island minibus tour we saw a Cuckoo at Telegraph and also at Mannez a magnificent male Hen Harrier which drifted across the road ahead just ahead of the bus. A cuckoo (possibly the same bird as the 11th) was spotted at Giffoine on the 13th.
12th &15th – For all you moth addicts out there, we had these Barrett’s Marbled Coronet in the ABO trap (1 on 12th, 2 on 15th) as the ABO takes part again in the annual ‘National moth nights census’. This is a coastal specialist species is scarce within its very limited UK distribution in a few coastal parts of Cornwall and Devon. We seem to do quite well with them here, especially recently as the ABO experiments with moth trapping at Mannez lighthouse. The immediate vicinity of the lighthouse has quite a lot of Sea Campion, a favoured flower for this moth species. A complete list of all the moths we recorded during the 3 dedicated consecutive moth nights will be on this site as soon as David Wedd has compiled it.
3 Barrett’s Marbled Coronet’s – photos JH.
On the 14th John & Jenny Richardson photographed the below Turtle Dove in their garden. Also in Barrackmasters Lane a Hawfinch on the 14th sparking interest that some of the overwintering influx may have stayed on and even be breeding.
Turlte Dove – Barrackmasters Lane,
Butterflies have been abundant this week, Wall Brown and Glanville Fritillary have been commonly found and also this week a huge increase in Small Heath. The first Meadow Browns now also joining the abundant Common Blue’s. Its not hard to see butterfly species into double figures at the moment. Also this week encouragingly we have had a lot of Greenfinches at The Lighthouse bird feeders (peaking at 22 juveniles present at one time). This is against the trend this year so far, with most song birds getting off to a late start due to the prolonged cold spell. Greenfinches however seem to have had a very successful and very early breeding season. Swifts are still moving through with reports on the 11th, 12th & 15th.
The Gull roost at Crabby Bay continues to be on the increase allowing me 60+ ring reads mid afternoon on the 17th.