June 17th

June 17th

A bumper day today included a good ringing session, busy moth trap, some impressive surprise migrant birds and a half-dozen Pyramidal Orchids flowering in the Obs garden.

Ringing on Longis reserve brought 25 new birds, as numbers of recently fledged individuals increases. The total included a smart adult male Swallow and our first Blue Tits (not a common bird here) since 11th April. Whilst completing a net round at about 11:20, I heard a Bee-eater call, looking up and about me frantically I could not locate it, it called again and, to my delight, the bird was perched on top of a bush at the edge of Longis pond about 30ft away. It eventually headed up towards Fort Albert where it landed on a roadside fence line.  Nicolette Doardo had a White Stork over Fort Clonque this morning and Jimmy Gregson had a White Stork (probably the same bird) over Houmet Herbe, flying towards France. Catherine Veron reported seeing both Manx and Sooty Shearwaters from the boat just beyond Les Etacs whilst travelling to Guernsey this morning. Paul Veron went out on a gull count and, for good measure, managed to ring some juvenile Shags (totals to follow when I catch up with him). And we thought where sightings are concerned June would be a quiet month.

The moth trap was again busy with the below Orache Moth the stand out one for me. Extinct as a  UK resident since 1915, there is a good population of these across the Channel Islands. 2nd photo the Cyprus Carpet is another species regular to Alderney but rather rare on mainland UK.

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