August doldrums.

An overnight trip to Hilbre started with an excellent dinner Friday evening courtesy of Mrs Williams who cooked us all a chili to take on with us. A quick trip to the chippie to supplement the chili and a pint at the Plasterers and we were in business! Not many birds around but we did recatch a Pied Wagtail in heavy moult which is presumably one of the adults that was ringed in the spring.

A right scruffy looking individual. It looks as if the wagtails might have got a second brood off following the almost complete failure of their first as there is at least one very juvenile bird flying around.

A (very) late night was followed (by some) by an equally early morning. With a  gentle N E breeze overnight hopes were high for some drift migration but unfortunately all we had were two Willow Warblers. A trickle of birds were caught and ringed though including a juvenile Song Thrush. As this species doesn't breed on Hilbre it was quite bizarre. Linnets have done well and another new juvenile was caught. Meanwhile others provided good photo opportunities in the field.

Despite appearing almost moribund last time I checked them in the nest the Hilbre Swallows have fledged and it was great to see them flying around the Island and occasionally settling on the paddock fences.

 Besides the avian interest there have been other recent interesting records from Hilbre. Bombus monticola, a species of Bumble Bee normally found above 300 m, used to be regular on Hilbre but died out in the mid nineties. Its been recently see. again in good numbers. One of the food plants is Bell Heather of which there is currently plenty on Hilbre.