Turtle Disaster!

An early start this morning. Up at 5.30am and away by 6 had me on Holy Island at 6.30am before the tide closed the crossings. I like this state of tide because it leaves you stranded without the hordes of tourists that flock here.

The weather was fine and bright with a moderate SE5, not the ideal weather we wanted for migrants. In recent days there have been Bluethroat and Icterine Warbler on here and I was hoping for similar!





Above - Some habitat shots first. A lot of new starters often query the whereabouts of locations on the island, so the top two are of the Excavations and the bottom one is the lonnen behind the school.

There was a nice scattering of commoner migrants in the dunes but the rares didn't materialise. The best though was a real suprise when a Nightjar flushed from the Vicar's Garden and then flew back and forward along the main island road before vanishing over the car park! I've never had a migrant 'jar in the county before...

Other birds of note were a nice Wood Warbler, a male Pied Flycatcher and a Spotted Flycatcher at the Snook, a few Garden Warblers, Whitethroats, Willow Warblers and Chiffs dotted around, an imm female Marsh Harrier flew N, 4 Whimbrel were seen but birds were heard all morning and the causeway was lifting with 226+ Ringed Plover, 107+ Grey Plover with more Dunlin and a few Sanderling.



Above - Marsh Harrier looking like a black kite....



Above - Pied Flycatcher.



Above - Wood Warbler ( eating a St Mark's Fly!)



Above - Northern Marsh Orchid.



Above - Some of the Grey Plovers on the mud flats. Nice.


Not such a disaster you might think, but Jane rang me at 10am to say that my neighbour Julie had seen a Turtle Dove bathing in a puddle on the road less than a hundred yards from my house at 9.30am and you might get where I'm coming from. I was back looking for it at 11.40 but there was no sign. I have stocked the garden with plenty of seed in the hope it might join the Collared Doves in the morning...