A Fall

A Fall is birdwatcher speak for when many migrant birds end up landing in an area after having their travel thwarted, often by bad weather.

This Spotted Flycatcher en route yo its South African wintering grounds

Some days on the Isle of May NNR we see this happening. You can wake up in the morning, poke your head outside and there will be birds all over the place.

 

Willow Warblers skipping around every bush

 

We'd been getting new birds all week, but today was an interesting day for migrant birds on the island. As we walked around the island it was quite obvious there was a lot of Willow Warblers about. There had been up top 20 about most of the week by the time we'd done a circuit of the island we'd seen at least 85. Many of them had been enjoying gleaning insects off the mass of thistles about the island. The birds were curious as we went about, sitting on top of the vegetation before diving into cover.

This Red-backed Shrike was seen this morning in the top garden. These birds are scarce migrants to Britain. We've had two birds this week. This juvenile and an adult female earlier in the week.

This is a poor record shot of a Reed Warbler captured on top of the south Plateau. These birds are common breeding birds in England but are not seen every year on the Isle of May.

David and myself have taken over recording all the migrant birds on the island while the bird observatory is unmanned. We keep a daily log of the birds present.

The board in the mess room had a reasonable selection of birds on today

 

The boys are getting on really well building the extension on the Bird Observatory 

A Fluke Street Sunset