Well, the summer is winding down.
The research students left last Sunday and one boat tour (Sea Watch)
made its last trip on Wednesday.
The second tour boat (Bold Coast) will run for a few more days,
assuming enough Puffins remain on the island and the weather co-
operates.
The alcid season has progressed a bit quicker than usual and the
chicks seem well developed, perhaps because of an apparently good food
supply.
There are still quite a few Pufflings receiving good servings of
(mostly) Herring but their numbers are diminished each night. I
escorted 7 to the shore last night and 8 the night before. Those were
just the fellows which I found around the house. One assumes a
similiar exodus elsewhere on the island.
Our resident song bird, the SAVANNAH SPARROW, also seems to have
enjoyed a better than average season. It's difficult to look anywhere
on the island without having several of them in sight. A quick count
of patio birds a moment ago produced 46 Savannahs with at least 35
BOYs.
Along with the Savannahs on the patio there was the 1st LARK SPARROW
and 2nd CHIPPING SPARROW of the "fall" season, as well as 2 NORTHERN
WATERTHRUSHES.
The Waterthrushs likely arrived last night when there was some migrant
movement. Along with Waterthrushes, I saw female REDSTARTS, RED EYED
VIREOS, COMMON YELLOW THROATS, BLACK AND WHITE WARBLERS & YELLOW
WARBLERS as well as several unidentified species of song birds and
shore birds.
The other harbinger of the dying summer is the many TREE & BARN
SWALLOWS moving through this week. There's not the great numbers which
one may see lining the utility wires on the mainland but I've seldom
see so many here.
On the shoreline things have been quiet. Resident SPOTTED SANDPIPERS
have been supplemented by a few SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS & random
MYSTERY PEEPS. An occasional singleton or small group of WIMBRELS have
also appeared towards the end of this week but any stops have been
brief.
PEREGRINES FALCONS are active every day that visibility permits.
Kills are seldom executed using the archtypical high level stoop.
Rather they are short, fast-acceleration, shallow-angle attacks that
force the prey (usually Puffins) into a climb. The strike is made from
behind and below.
At least 6 times in the past 2 weeks I saw 2 or 3 Peregrines
interacting. On 2 occasions there were 3 birds and a great deal of
screaming, leading me to think that I was watching a family unit with
a very vocal youngster.
On the water there's been nothing of special note: ALCIDS in abundance
(of course); COMMON EIDERS (including several late, half grown
ducklings); GANNETS patroling each day; sporadic SHEARWATERS (mostly
all Greaters); DOUBLE CREASTED CORMORANTS moving about in small
groups; BLK. BACKED & HERRING GULLS in varying numbers as food shifts
around; an occasional MINKE WHALE sighting; ubiquitous GRAY & HARBOUR
SEALS and frequent close encounters with pups of both species.
Butterflies are fairly numerous, especially PAINTED LADYS. Also
frequent (for here) are MONARCH BUTTERFLIES. I see 2 to 5 each day of
fine weather.
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