Ramsey Monthly Round Up - October 2008

Highlights of October were 4 great spotted woodpeckers. A single bird on 5th was only the second record for the island, followed remarkably by 3 more on 17th. A ring tail hen harrier was present on 28th, 3 house sparrows in the month, a Lapland bunting on 12th plus 3 pintails flying south on the same day. Red throated and great northern divers were seen on a seawatch on 26th. A single whinchat was present on 12th and a short eared owl was logged on 27th. After an absence of 12 years, we experienced a long tail tit invasion. 6 birds were present on 22nd with 4 on 30th, followed by a roving flock of 25 on 31st.
Seawatching at the start of the month produced 10 arctic and 6 great skua, 28 common scoter and 7 sandwich terns. Manx shearwaters were recorded heading south at a rate of 1000/hr on 1st. Towards the end of the month a large movement of kittiwake (350/hr) was noted.
Also of note were 3 yellow wagtails in the month, large movement of skylarks (total 298 west), siskin (total 123 west), goldcrest (71 in total, max 24 on 17th), 42 goldfinch on 17th, 4 chiffchaff on 12th and6 coal tits through the month. The first redwing appeared on 12th but the first fieldfare didn’t show until 31st. 5 house martins on 6th were the last records of this species, along with 13 swallows on 22nd. The final date for wheatear was 18th. Song thrush appeared during the month with a max of 23 on 17th. Single merlin were recorded on 4 dates in the month with a max of 4 kestrels on 6th.
Max flocks of 13 chough and 75 curlew.
Offshore, single basking shark (1st) and common dolphin (3rd) were the only records of note.
Late addition – female ring ouzel on 1st November. Greg Morgan