Return migration?

AN interesting day on Hilbre in beautiful sunny weather yestersay. It seems as i summer has finally arrived this last week but for some birds maybe its already autumn?

The first returning Greenland Wheatears & Willow Warblers were logged whilst a solitary Song Thrus his another bird normally associated with a Hilbre autumn / winter!

A juvenile Stonechart was a good July bird and must have surely been fledged somehwere nearby on the mainland. It spent the afternoon in and around the Old Obs garden and canoe club bungalow happliy feeding on flies and occasionally perching on one of the potter traps set out but resolultely refusing to go in to any.

Family parties of Linnets and Meadow Pipits are still the commonest birds on the island and at least some are still feeding either late first broods or second broods.

With clear blue skies, high temperatures and a beautiful azure sea the Mediterranean feel was even more enhanced when the Hummingbird Hawkmoth put in another brief appearance on honeysuckle outside the Obs window. Not easy to photograph with a 500 mm lens!