September 2022 |
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15th - 20th. St Ives. Dead jasmine moth in the garden, and a hummingbird hawkmoth roosting on the wall of the Hepworth Sculpture Garden. James Stevens no. 10, the St Ives lifeboat between 1899 - 1933. Gigs in the harbour. Bird sightings from the Island: 15th: 08:00-09:00 juvenile Arctic tern, 2 Arctic skua (one dark , one light phase). In afternoon, juvenile sparrowhawk landed on rocks; female-type merlin flew close by then over bay towards Hayle: 54 Sandwich tern; and 2 dead gannets in sea. 16th: 08.45-09.45: 15 common scoter W, 1 grey phalarope E. 18th: 08:15-09:15. 1 grey heron, 5 common scoter, 1 Balearic shearwater, 2 great northern diver, 1 little egret, 5 Mediterranean gull. Also, this afternoon distant pomarine Skua adult dark phase and an Arctic skua adult pale phase in bay. 19th: the day of the Queen's funeral: 08.15-11.00: 2 common scoter, 2 Balearic shearwater, 5 bottlenose dolphin, 4 harbour porpoise, 25+ common dolphin. I spent some time photographing birds with the 24-105mm lens. Turnstones. Herring gull. There is bird flu in the bay now. I watched one herring gull convulsing in an alley, and several dead gannets were in the sea. This one was fine. Hayle Estuary, looking towards Lelant Church from Carnsew. A small wader flock included 2 sanderling and a probable little stint. A whimbrel, greenshank and 2 kingfishers were at Ryan's Field, with another kingfisher at Lelant station. 12th. Cheddar Reservoir - black tern, ringed plover, little ringed plover, dunlin, black-tailed godwit, snipe. Chew Valley Lake: whinchat, stonechat, black tern, hobby, ringed plover, dunlin and pectoral sandpiper from Heron's Green. Wood sandpiper, 2 common sandpiper, 12+ green sandpiper, 5 ruff, 40+ black-tailed godwit, 2 cattle egret, 45+ snipe, garganey Herriot's; 9 cattle egret, osprey catching fish, juvenile peregrine, knot, garganey Stratford. 11th. Transcriptomics work with the Woodchester greater horseshoe bats with Tadhg Lonergan and Megan Power. Some profile photos with backlit flash. A big tick on this bat. Some scenes from the Mansion. 10th. Chipping Sodbury Common. Hobby, spotted flycatcher, male and female redstart, whitethroat. 8th. The weather forecast looked bleak, though it barely rained on Cleeve Common where 3 dotterel fed within a few metres on the afternoon that the Queen died. 1st. Daniel Whitby, Hetty and I went to Woodchester Mansion to photograph horseshoe bats. Greater horseshoe bat Lesser horseshoe bat |