Blue Sunday

An uneventful WeBS count at White Sands this afternoon produced very few birds, with a Ringed Plover and a Whimbrel the only items of any real interest.

On a positive note, with Denzil performing some labouring the painstaking arrangement of the local railway sleepers into some form of usable hide continued with now half a front and part of a side in situ!

With the sun starting to emerge from behind the clouds, some butterflies were encouraged to take to the wing and the walk to the end of rivetment was made more worthwhile as we enjoyed views of Common Blue, Small Copper (You’re right Andy, they are more common than I thought!), Small Heath and the day flying Burnet Companion moth.

Encouraging news from the Common Tern colony today, with approximately three hundred individuals present on the pools early doors before skidaddling off later on in mid morning. (News comes via Mersey Ringing Group).

Hopefully, they will soon settle down and start to breed soon and confirm that last year’s total wipe-out was just an anomalous blip in an otherwise successful colony.

With a total of five people on the reserve today, I would have thought that this constituted some sort of record. There can’t be many sites in the country where the yearly tally of species recorded in the area exceeds the total of individual birders that visit!

Shotton NR/White Sands 16.05.10

1 Whimbrel
1 Ringed Plover
4 Common Blue
2 Small Copper
1 Small Heath
1 Burnet Companion

Until later.