Saturday 5 May 2012

Waking up to a Dotterel!

I arrived on the limestones at 5.30am just in time to see the sunrise and lone Swift flying east. Twenty minutes later and the call of a Dotterel well and truly woke me up. The bird landed briefly by the cairn before flying around me for a minute or two and heading off towards the summit. Certainly a case of the early birder getting the spoils! Although quite quiet this morning, the four hours spent up there produced a few bits and pieces - a Whinchat on the limestones and around 30 Greenland type Wheatears, 3 Lesser Whitethroats by Powell's Well, three Tree Pipits over and a lone Yellow Wagtail over west as I was enjoying a hard earned cup of coffe at the north end before leaving. Two Black Guillemots were also present off the gun-site. 5 Lesser redpolls, 7 Swifts, 5 Siskin, 5 'alba' Wagtails, 2 Blackcap, Whitethraot and a handful of Willow Warblers made up the best of the other migrants. Chough, Peregrine and Sparrowhawk were all good to see while the cliffs were alive with the sounds and sight of Guillemots, Razorbills, Fulmar, Cormormants, Shags and Kittiwakes. The best pictures ever of Dotterel ;-/ ! And a showy female Greenalnd Wheatear waking up in the early morning sun.

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