Caldey Update

Have just spent 4 days on Caldey.

Good passage of Blackcaps esp on 16th and 18th with quite a few Chiffchaffs going through too. Also a few early Goldcrests, a couple Spotted Flycatchers, Garden Warblers and Wheatears plus a Whinchat on 17th and at least three Water Rail present.

A Tawny Owl on 17th at dusk was the first record for the island. There are no small mammals on Caldey apart from rats so owls are pretty scarce and usually passage Short Eared.

Ringing produced good numbers of Blackcap and Chiffchaffs and at least three flocks of Long Tailed Tit but the star bird was a young Melodious Warbler caught on 16th and recaught and then seen again later for at least half an hour in a Blackthorn on 18th.

Spectacular Swallow passage - as also seen from Giltar Point. Best was 18th with between 9,000 and 12,000 per hour going east for at least 3 hrs from 1100 and 1400 but still moving in smaller numbers to around 1700hrs. Any quick scan of the whole island would produce around 1,000 birds on the move. A guess - possibly 40,000 birds in the day. Many fewer (but still a steady passage) on other days with around 250 getting "stuck" on the island on 16th due to poor visibility and drizzle - they all left early on 17th.

Later on 18th also reasonable numbers of House Martins on the move - perhaps a couple of hundred in total.