Friday, 7 August 2015

7th August


A perfect, flat calm morning which, after the spell of easterlies in the last few days you would hope that there would be some birds in the nets but it was a little disappointing with 32 new birds including single Garden Warbler, Whitethroat and Lesser Whitethroat with 16 Willow Warblers (we are just starting to catch the first juvenile Warblers which have finished their post-juvenile moult so hopefully they will start moving through in bigger numbers now!).

                There were a few bits and pieces around through the morning with the first Red-necked Grebe of the autumn close inshore, 2 Spotted Redshanks, a decent flock of 71 Curlews in the fields, 15 Crossbills, a Green Woodpecker, a Sparrowhawk, a Peregrine, small numbers of waders passing offshore and 300+ Greylag Geese also heading south.

                The rest of the day was pretty quiet as I stayed away from the coast and had a couple of Tree Pipits, a few Red-backed Shrikes and some more Greylag Geese heading south late afternoon.
 
 
 
There were no photo opportunities today so here are a few from Razo in the Cape Verdes where I went in November 2009 specifically to colour ring the endemic Razo Larks there
 

Male and female Razo Larks; they have different sized bills to reduce foraging competition on this barren island

Juvenile male Razo Lark

It had been abnormally wet just before we arrived so the Larks were breeding like Rabbits; this is the first ever recorded nest with four chicks!

Boyd's Shearwater

Cape Verde Shearwater
 

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