Snow and Corncrakes
Wild and windy last weekend which at last produced some skua passage – Arctic, Great, Long-tailed and Pomarine were seen from Ardvule.
A very busy week with a pretty diverse range of activities – chick chasing and nest recording, breeding bird survey, birding and late in the week joining in with a seaweed hunt.
Ian was let loose with the camera and got this lovely shot of a Common Sandpiper.
I woke early on the 16th to turn off the moth trap – it was 4.30am and just starting to get light, the Blackbird was already on the lawn looking for worms. It felt very chill outside (especially as I was in me pyjamas!) and there was a dusting of snow on Ben Mhor, the overnight temperature had dropped to just 2.7’C and there were only two moths in the trap. So, a mixture of winter and summer as I could also hear a Corncrake crexing away not far in the distance. A single Hebrew Character (Orthosia gothica) in the trap 
Corncrake
In just two days “chick chasing” produced 25 birds – all Lapwings.
Lapwing chick trying to hide from us - they are amazingly well camouflaged!
Newly ringed Lapwing chick
The Oystercatchers are still sitting tight this week – surely they will hatch soon?
Oystercatcher nest
Lapwing nest
Friday 18th seemed like a good day to go and do the first visit on my Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) square – I can’t keep putting it off, the weather isn’t going to warm up! The 1km square is NF7841 and is fairly near to Loch Bee. A long fence line seemed like a good marker to follow over the boggy terrain – it was very soggy in places and I was really glad I had worn me wellies. Managed to see 25 species which quite surprised me.
A bit wet out there - glad i had my wellies on!
A great view of the hills from out there - and silence apart from the birds
This was just past the end of my BBS square - good job really because i wouldn't have been able to get across anyway 
Looking the opposite way towards the hills
At one point I was just about to climb a barbed wire fence when I spotted this spider on the wire. Now, I’m not much of a spider fan but our next door neighbour is, and even to my arachnophobe mind it did look quite interesting so I stopped and took a few photos. I believe it to be a Furrow Spider (Larinioides cornutus) which is an orb-weaver spider and looking at the NBN Gateway map has been recorded here in South Uist previously. They usually live near water and spend the day time in the “nest” that it makes.
I believe this to be Furrow Spider (Larinioides cornutus)
Heading back into it's wee nest - i disturbed it as i was just about to get over the fence here!
I think I overdressed for doing the survey – I had a long-sleeved t-shirt, two fleeces and a waterproof coat on, trousers, waterproof leggings, thick socks and wellies – oh and my daft hat. I arrived back at the van absolutely sweltering! Maybe I’m just unfit?!
After the survey we headed off up to Berneray. We trawled across the machair to see if there were any chicks to ring, we only found 3 Lapwing chicks. There were quite a lot of waders on the machair – Sanderling (seemed weird to see Sanderling on a ploughed area!), a handful of Black-tailed Godwits, Then we headed up to one of our favourite spots right up in the north of Berneray where you can sit on the top of the dunes and look out across the Sound of Harris – on a nice day we sit out on the picnic chairs – today wasn’t one of those days! Great view though and there was still snow on the Harris hills
Berneray - not a bad spot for a picnic!
The first juvenile House sparrows were seen in the garden on the 19th May
We always like to learn about something new so when Curracag (the local Natural History Society) advertised an event to be run during Scottish Biodiversity Week we thought we would go along. It was called The Big Seaweed Hunt and took place at Carinish, North Uist.
Even for someone who is supposed to be grown up there’s nothing quite like splashing around in the rock pools in your wellies is there!? The event was well attended and there were a good range of ages – right from toddlers to oldies – well Ian does have his bus pass now 
Tracey, Peter and Ian looking at their seaweed finds
All this fun had a serious side to it – we learned that seaweeds are “simple plant-like organisms called algae” and that many animals rely on them for food and shelter. We also learned that, rather worryingly, and in common with many other plants and animals, seaweeds are responding to climate change and rising sea levels. There is an invasive species called Wireweed – it was first recorded in 1973 in the Isle of wight and has been gradually spreading north.
Before going along to this event I knew absolutely nothing about seaweed and didn’t realise the diversity that you could find in just one very small inlet. We found at least 6 different species plus a few more unidentified species which Tracey (who led the meeting) took home to identify. The 3 most common seaweeds there were Egg Wrack, Bladder Wrack and Channelled Wrack.
Bladder Wrack - Fucus vesiculosus
Egg Wrack - Ascophyllum nodosum
Not sure of this one - still trying to find an identification...
One of the green seaweeds, Ulva species i think
Found in a rock pool, I haven't identified this one yet
Channelled Wrack - Pelvetia canaliculata
We left the meeting fairly well enabled to be able to survey our own chosen patch of beach so that we can now take part in our own Big Seaweed Search – the results of which we will be able to enter on their website at: www.nhm.ac.uk/seaweeds Take a look at the web site it has loads of information both about the survey and seaweeds in general. I also found quite a handy (if a little technical) key in the Field Guide to British Seaweeds found on The National Marine Biological Analytical Quality Control Scheme website.
Moth trapping has still been very dire – the cold northerly wind continues and the only night it turned south-easterly we caught just 2 moths – a single Red Chestnut and a lovely Pebble Prominent (almost four weeks earlier than our first one last year).
Pebble Prominent - Notodonta ziczac
On the 20th we caught and ringed our first Oystercatcher chicks of the year – I tell you what, for something so small they can’t half run fast!
First 2 Oystercatcher chicks of 2012
And we have now ringed 100 Lapwing chicks this year – this morning (20th May) we found two broods of four, including these that were still in the nest, they looked like they had not long hatched (you can just about make out the egg tooth on one of the chicks bills)
Four tiny Lapwing chicks, still in the nest - an unusual find!
Mid May and the North wind continues!
Another busy week of early mornings spent nest finding and chick chasing. The weather is still a little chill – over 40 consecutive days with North in the wind!
Plenty of Lapwing chicks around this week but the Oystercatchers still seem to be sitting tight.
There have been plenty of Meadow Pipits along the machair – hundreds in fact! The ones we’ve caught and ringed have had a good amount of fat so we are presuming that they are passing through. On the Curracag Forum (Curracag is the Outer Hebrides Natural History Society) there was a report from one of the other ringers here in the Outer Hebrides, Chris who lives in Lewis, who has trapped and ringed 98 Meadow Pipits to date this year – many of which, he commented, were very fat.
Ever since i was a child i’ve always thought that one of the best sounds of spring is the Skylark, there are plenty of them all along the machair this week too.
Skylark out on the machair
There are reasonable numbers of Whimbrel this week, they are also passing through on their way to their breeding grounds in Iceland.
Whimbrel
It’s been too windy for mist netting this week. Most days we’ve been to North Locheynort, it’s a great place for a walk around and especially in the wooded area where it is nice and sheltered. We were very happy to see a male Pied Flycatcher there on the 9th May and on the 11th we found 3 male Blackcaps on our early morning walk.
On the 10th May the normally mundane weekly shopping trip to the Co-op at Daliburgh was brightened up by the sight of a smart male Pied Flycatcher in Askernish and then Sand Martin was added to the year list with the sight of 7 flying low over Loch nan Clacha-mora (otherwise known as the loch behind the Co-op!).
Ian and Bill next door have been re-living their childhood days – they wandered off down the road on a sunny afternoon complete with jars and fishing net – after furtling around in the nearby stream they were very happy to have found 3-spined Stickleback (new for this 10km square!) and what i’m reliably informed is a Horny Orb Mussel – these mussels are apparantly very biosensitive and only thrive in nice clean water. They had already been recorded as appearing in this 10km square – it seems that Ian and Bill aren’t the only ones who like a bit of afternoon fishing
3-spined Stickleback
Horny Orb Mussel
Rest assured all critters were returned unharmed to the stream after having had their mugshots taken
There are still a few Pale-bellied Brent’s around on the machair:-
Pale-bellied Brents on the machair at Bornish
The wind direction looks like it should be changing so we are hoping that we may be able to get some skua passage.
Moths this week? – Sadly it’s been too cold and windy to put the trap out – surely things can only get better??
We’ve just finished inputting the House Sparrow sightings for April 2012 so here are the details of our ringing during April.
| New | Retraps | TOTAL | |
| Woodpigeon | 1 | 1 | |
| Collared Dove | 1 | 1 | |
| Meadow Pipit | 16 | 1 | 17 |
| Pied/White Wagtail | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Wren | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Blackbird | 8 | 11 | 19 |
| Song Thrush | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| Redwing | 3 | 3 | |
| Chiffchaff | 2 | 2 | |
| Willow Warbler | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Starling | 5 | 2 | 7 |
| House Sparrow | 4 | 249 | 253 |
| Greenfinch | 11 | 43 | 54 |
| Goldfinch* | 1 | 1 | |
| Twite | 1 | 1 | |
| Lesser Redpoll* | 5 | 5 | 10 |
| Grand Total: | 65 | 317 | 382 |
| Total Species: | 15 | 11 | 16 |
Interesting birds were Goldfinch and Lesser Redpoll controls which were captured on the 26th and 29th of the month respectively. Once we hear back from the BTO i will post the details of where they had come from. Also of interest during April were a Pied Wagtail which we had originally ringed on the 23rd September 2010 and a Willow Warbler which we first ringed on the 5th June 2011 – it never ceases to amaze me that birds turn up again in the exact same place! As usual the high number of House Sparrow retraps were sightings of our colour-ringed birds – including the one that has moved to Bayhead on North Uist.
Pied Wagtail first ringed by us in September 2010, recaptured April 2012
Machair waders
A busy week – the nights are definitely getting shorter! The weather has been excellent, very little wind early in the day, a little cold though with temperatures down to just -0.2’C. Our routine for the last week has been to get up at around 5am to turn off the moth trap, have a quick bite of breakfast then head out to the machair to nest find and to see if we can find any chicks to ring.
We’ve had more success with the chick chasing than this time last year – the weather was so awful last May very very wet – then it rained every single day apart from the first three. We made a conscious descision then not to chase any chicks in those conditions, the poor things were having a hard enough time as it was.
Amongst the very few moths in the trap we were happy to find our first Puss Moth of the year.
Puss Moth
The first few days of the week we were also checking in at Rubha Ardvule to see if we could relocate the King Eider – no luck! Sadly it looks as though this will be a species that Ian has on his Western Isles list that I don’t. Never mind, I’m still a good bit ahead of him and I don’t think he’s likely to catch up unless (a) another Purple Martin turns up and (b) he actually gets to see it! 
Nowt but ordinary Eiders at Ardvule
Common Eider at Rubha Ardvule, South Uist
After finishing on the machair we have been calling in to North Locheynort – a small wooded oasis on the east side of South Uist.
The smaller birds there are also busy nesting – this Robin must have young, we saw it carrying food.
Robin carrying food
Once back at home, time for a quick cuppa then if it’s not too windy get the nets open and the ground traps out – if the wind has increased too much we just run the ground traps.
“Our” Lesser Redpoll has been a frequent visitor – we first ringed him (with ring number V548458) in August 2010 and he returned in Spring 2011, staying for a few months and seen then in the company of a Common Redpoll – we were unable to confirm breeding. We are very very happy to see V548458 back this spring – within a few hours he was in the trap and we were able to positively confirm his identity.
Lesser Redpoll
A trip south down the machair on Sunday 6th May took us past Loch Hallan which we scanned for birds – we found a single male Pochard – an Outer Hebrides tick for me. I know they are pretty infrequent here, the county recorder, Brian says “Pochard a really good bird here now – in the three years 2008-2010 I think there was only a single record (a female on Loch Skealtar). The theory that the small Icelandic population pass through Scotland after the breeding season seems to have been confirmed by the sighting of eight flying south with Pink-feet over Barra in October 2006. Perhaps the bird today was returning to Iceland.”
Pochard at Loch Hallan
Between Askernish and Kilpheder we counted 40+ Whimbrel, 13 Black-tailed Godwits, 60+ Golden Plover and 2 Whooper Swans were in the fields. There must have been at least a couple of hundred Meadow Pipits around – and judging by the ones we’ve been catching which have lots of fat, I would say that they are migrating through. Lots more Wheatears around now – the odd one of which I could almost string as a Greenland Wheatear
Monday 7th May, we continued the early morning start – it was cold – having dropped below zero overnight – the car was well frozen! When we went to get the moth trap in there was a Large Red Damselfly on the wall nearby – perhaps it had been attracted by the warmth of the bulb! There were no moths in the trap.
Large Red Damselfly
We had a leisurely breakfast as we didn’t want to be disturbing the birds too much on such a cold morning. At the beach at Kilpheder there were quite good numbers of waders, including 4 Knot which were beginning to come into summer plumage. There was also a single Grey Plover and 26 Bar-tailed Godwits plus many Dunlin and Sanderling.
Knot on the beach, amongst the Turnstones and Dunlin
A little further along the machair we were pleased to hear a couple of singing male Corn Buntings – i never seem to be able to get photos of these guys sitting on something more photogenic than barbed wire!
Corn Bunting
A minute or two later another first of the year – a calling Corncrake! They’re skulky little devils at the best of times but around now when the ground vegetation is still really sparse is about the best time to see them. Managed to get a photo anyway – it’s a bit fuzzy as it is heavily cropped, the bird was quite far away even for the 400mm lens.
Corncrake, skulking about in the sparse vegetation
You can almost see right down his throat - there was another male calling fairly nearby so he was really giving it his best
Much of the same planned for the coming week – chick chasing and nest monitoring and hopefully the weather will begin to warm up so that we can catch some moths at last!
Sweet Gale Moth
Things have been pretty slow recently with regards to moth-trapping – for almost all of the last month there has been some north in the wind making it pretty cold.
Just 7 Hebrew Characters and 3 Red Chestnuts plus we were very happy to find the nationally scarce Sweet Gale Moth in the trap – a moth we haven’t seen before. The County Moth Recorder tells us that it is only the second location here in the hebrides that the moth has been recorded at.
Sweet Gale Moth
Our first Lapwing chicks of the year seen at Stoneybridge this morning 
and we managed to catch and ring them. There were also 22 Whimbrel between Stoneybridge and Howbeg. The King Eider was not at Rubha Ardvule first thing this morning but there were still 23 pale-bellied Brents still on the beach plus our first Arctic Tern of the summer.
A quick walk around at North Locheynort and we found an ant that we hope our friend Rhian can identify. Rhian is currently doing her PhD on ants see this article about her work with ants and their connection with the endangered Large Blue Butterfly: http://planetearth.nerc.ac.uk/news/story.aspx?id=1176&cookieConsent=A also more on this fascinating subject at http://www.butterfly-conservation.org/text.asp?PageId=363
Unidentified ant (Myrmica spp.)
The Herons are busy nesting in the area as well, this youngster was seen skulking around in the vegetation – it seems to be old enough to go walkabout but not yet big enough to be able to fly.
Young Grey Heron
Adult Grey Heron
There was also a small flock of 8 Siskins, quite a few Willow Warblers and a Chiffchaff around the wooded area.
We counted quite a few Green-veined White butterflies that were in the warmer, more sheltered areas.
Green-veined White butterfly
Revamped Blog!
Finally getting around to re-vamping, updating and improving the blog – been getting phone calls and messages berating me for not having updated the blog in over a year. Yes, i know, very remiss of me 
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Posts from 2008 to 2011 can still be found at www.yvonnes-blog.co.uk
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