Good fall of migrants on Hilbre.

I'd arranged to go over to the Obs late morning and stay over the tide - I wish I'd got up earlier. There was the best fall of birds on Hilbre for several years with the star bird being a Wood Warbler followed closely by a Tree Pipit. However, there were still birds arriving as I drove on and joined the rest of the ringing team and I arrived just in time to process this lovely 5 male Whinchat (Euring code 5 - a bird born last year). A first for me (Photo courtesy of Al H).

Willow Warblers were very where with an estimated 120 on the island with more being caught right up until the time we left at 17.00. There were several larger, paler birds which were probably from more northern parts of their range. Steve William's photo below shows the differences quite well.

Other birds ringed included the first Whitethroats of the year and a Linnet. If it wasn't so windy and we could have put  couple of mist nets up we may have easily ringed 100 birds but we finished on 80 with one control Willow Warbler.

There was plenty of activity on the sea as well with large numbers of Dunlin roosting around the island. A phone call from Jane Turner had us scanning the sea for a flock of Black Terns she'd picked up from her window and we eventually found a flock of 10 feeding on the tide line. Later we had 4 closer down the west side. A drake Eider put in an appearance and there were a few Red-thraoted Divers - including a couple of summer plumaged birds. Terns were the theme of the day as far as sea-watching was concerned with the first Little And Arctic Terns of the year being recorded as well as Common & Sandwich Terns.

With the Bluebells in flower and the Thrift just beginning to flower the island is beginning to look stunning. A feature of Hilbre is the wallflowers which seem to have become naturalised around the old buildings and these are also in full flower.

A great day and I arrived home suitably knackered and wind burnt but happy.

Garden Robins

We are lucky in having two pairs of Robins nesting in our new garden - conveniently one in the front and one in the back. Even more conveniently the front garden pair have nested in a dwarf conifer right in front of the window!

They only laid two eggs and I originally thought they'd deserted but when I checked on returning from Oz there were two young.  We had a wet spell and maybe that deterred the female from laying if she couldn't find enough food.

The youngsters have been duly ringed and both adults had already been ringed and I took the opportunity to photograph them through the bedroom window.

Another Siskin control

I've just received another Siskin control from the large number  I ringed in the winter 2015-2016. This one was controlled in N Wales recently.

 That's four controls from around 160 birds ringed during that winter. Two have been returning birds that have been caught in gardens on the Wirral and now N Wales.

Back to the UK

We've just spent a fantastic two weeks in Australia visiting our daughter, son in law and granddaughter and helping them move into a fabulous new house where, every morning, I spent an hour or so on the rear deck overlooking the hills behind the house and watching Nankeen Kestrels catch grasshoppers with Crimson Rosella's, Eastern Rosella's, Kookaburra's and Wedge-tailed Eagles among the supporting cast. One downside of long haul trips is the jet lag and two nights later I'm still waking at stupid o'clock. This morning, despite staying up until 10 pm I woke at 2 in the morning and eventually gave up at 5! A blessing in disguise as I'd never have seen the pair of Tufted Ducks that hd dropped into the pond / flash opposite the house. A garden and new patch tick no less. They didn't stay long and were chased off by the resident Coots but they, or another pair, turned up with reinforcements in the form of a 2nd pair, a few minutes later. They to were chased off but the Coots don't seem to bother about the Teal.

The heavy rain earlier this morning dropped a few migrants in with Willow Warbler and Garden Warbler both in the garden and at mixed flock of at least 100 Sand Martins and Swallows hawking over the pond.

Since we've been away 2 pairs of Robins have hatched young in the garden and one nest box has a Blue Tits nest with eggs. Other boxes are being inspected. A Carrion Crow has built a nest at the top of our Scots Pine whilst a hare has made regular appearances in the field.

Unexpected item in the bagging area!

Hilbre's 4th record of Pheasant was seen by Steve on Wednesday wandering between Middle Eye & Hilbre. Its assumed these birds come across from Red Rocks - the last record coincided with some extensive 'management' work and it looks like the same has happened again this year. Either that or its a genuine returning migrant - a bit like my Siskin mentioned in my previous blog post. Its an interesting record as the bird would have had to travel across at least a mile of open mud and sand or indeed water if the tide was in.

Anyway, I found myself on Hilbre yesterday to meet up with a local guy who's making a short video presentation for his journalism course and wanted to film an interview about bird ringing and hopefully a bird being ringed. Things certainly didn't look hopeful with the wind being in the wrong direction and heavy rain! A quick walk round the heligoland traps revealed this:

The bird was picked up and released in the open where it ran off at full speed without uttering a sound. We did eventually catch a couple of birds with a new Robin and a female Chaffinch being ringed so Danny got his video footage.

Nice Siskin control

I've recently had a nice Siskin control of a bird I ringed in January last year (2016) controlled in a Hilbre members garden by a Hilbre ringer in February this year!

It makes you wonder where it had been in the intervening year.

Little Grebes.

A beautiful sunny spring weekend in my part of Cheshire with Chiffchaff singing in the garden, a Robins nest with two eggs and Great 7 Blue Tits nesting in the boxes I've put up! The Little Owls have been basking out in the early evening sunshine just before it sets and we can see them from the windows.A Great Spotted Woodpecker spent the weekend drumming in a nearby oak and we had another visit from a singing Treecreeper. The whole weekend was spent in the garden replacing rotten fence posts to stop the sheep getting in and generally tidying up.

The pond opposite the house, once again, provided the star bird(s) though - a new house and patch tick. A quick glance early morning Sunday to see if any waders had dropped in over night was rewarded by the presence of a pair of Little Grebes!

Other pond visitors over the weekend included a single male Shoveller, Teal, Coot (now nest building) , Canada Geese, Greylags and a pair of Lapwings. Sunday was a real bird filled day with 40 species being recorded either in or from the garden. The total now for the new patch stands at 70 species for 2017.