Friday 28 March 2014

A good scattering of common migrants were recorded on a day with quite promising conditions: light north-east winds, coupled with the occasional downpour. The highest count of Northern Wheatears so far this year saw some 20 birds on the island, most of which were present on The Narrows. Warblers numbers comprised 11 Chiffchaffs and four Goldcrests; a total of 142 Meadow Pipits continued to feed around the island in loose flocks, along with two White Wagtails; a Reed Bunting and a Goldfinch flew overhead, with one of the latter trapped in Cristin garden.

 Chiffchaff numbers are very gradually building, with the total on the 26th being the highest so far this year. We should also be expecting the first Willow Warblers to arrive any day now, with one reported at Skokholm Bird Observatory yesterday
The lonesome Collared Dove seems to have taken up residence in Ty Pellaf garden for the time being
 Wheatears were represented in their highest numbers so far this year: a total of  five were seen on the South End, 12 on The Narrows, and three on Pen Cristin

In other news, there were some very interesting Meadow Pipits amongst the flock of 70 on The Narrows. Some of the birds looked essentially like the island's breeding birds, although at least 50% were in plumages similar to a select few pictured below. Many of the birds looked similar to Tree Pipits (A.travialis), with the rich yellow-buff suffusion on the breast, as well as having very bold supercilium. These birds could be of Icelandic origin, although biometrics might well shed some light on their status

2 comments:

  1. How did the odd pipits call?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Paul. There was no discernible difference between the calls of these odd birds and the island's breeding pipits to be honest

    ReplyDelete