Ramsey Round Up - July and Aug 09

Quite a slow couple of months bird wise with record rainfall in July (235mm) and an unsettled August.

Highlights were a dotterel (25/8), 4 Balearic shearwaters past the seawatch point (2 in July, 2 in August), a green sandpiper (22/8) and a little egret (7/7).

Also of note was the first short eared owl young to fledge from here in over 20 years (at least 1 heard in July, then seen in August). The regular wintering purple sandpipers returned in late July and had built up to 8 by the end of August.

At sea (in addition to the balearics, above), the following were recorded in the period – Arctic skua (5), BH gull (30+), common scoter (27+), commic tern (15), bonxie (3) – plus 2 sunfish. Max chough numbers were 28 in August with a max flock of 15. Curlews numbered up to 70 in July and 40 in August. Other waders included 4 common sandpipers, 2 dunlin and 70+ whimbrel . Small passerine migrants have been slow to get going with just the usual willow warbler and chiffchaffs so far plus a single spotted flycatcher (12/8). Auk ledges were empty by 20/7 following a successful season and the last puffins were recorded offshore on 4/8

Kittiwakes had their most successful season for 4 years with numbers up to 225 AON and productivity at 0.65 per pair

Other breeding numbers of note (with 2008 figures in brackets) - chough 8 pairs, 24 fledged (8 pairs, 16 fledged) wheatear 115 pairs (95), skylark 12 pairs (9), buzzard 2 pairs (2), peregrine 2 pairs (3), lapwing 5 pairs (5), meadow pipit 57 pairs (57!), linnet 46 pairs (37 in 2007)