I knew it: I shouldn't have taken leave last week. We've been expecting to see great swathes of birds passing through the Mull on their annual migration southward and it all got going last week while I was away. My colleague Paul had the good fortune to be on the reserve and we were very lucky indeed to have a visit from Clive McKay who is a Bird Migration expert who spent a long weekend watching out for migrating flocks. Clive had an outstanding day on Saturday and put the Mull of Galloway well and truly on the Migration map.
It was a foggy day last Tuesday and through the mists poured thousands of meadow pipits, all heading south. The following day there was a repeat performance albeit in smaller (but still significant) numbers. The spectacle began just before 8am and continued beyond 6pm - it must have been extraordinary. Paul also reports that a flock of golden plover flew over last week.
As well as the fly-overs, there were many feathered visitors in transit, stopping off for some R&R, before continuing on their annual journey to the south. Some will be moving to the south of the UK for the winter, some will be going further afield. We have a sheltered hollow just below the Visitor Centre which contains willow scrub and is ideal for small birds to shelter in and feed on the abundance of insects in and around the scrub. Last week Paul saw willow warblers, chiff chaffs, a pair of whitethroat, stonechats, a whinchat, reed buntings, great and blue tits, robins... Now, I know that some of these don't sound unusual but we don't see birds like chiff chaff and willow warbler for example very often here at the Mull.
Now that the Mull's glorious show of flowering plants has mostly given way to seed heads, the seed eaters are having a field day. More than 300 species of flowering plants here equals a diverse and delightful menu for the wildlife of the reserve, Flocks of goldfinches have been dropping in to feed on the thistle seeds and our resident linnet numbers have been swelled and mixed flocks of linnet and twite are present, making the most of the banquet. Little tinkling calls from the goldfinches and slurred zwees from the linnets help me to pick them out amongst the seedheads, wonderful stuff. Kestrels have been regular visitors over the last few weeks and last week there were two pairs fighting for vole hunting rights. It seems to have been a bumper year for the voles and the kestrels have been taking full advantage.
Out on the sea, porpoise sightings are regular just now, with six or so pods of 30+ porpoises seen last week in the calm sea and another pod seen today in the very rough seas. The auks have made a reappearance with razorbills and the odd guillemot feeding on the tidal race. There are still good numbers of gannets to be seen and both red-throated and black-throated divers have been sighted beyond the foghorn.
To top it off Clive McKay's monitoring work at the weekend yielded amazing results, on Saturday in particular. He counted no fewer than 1433 skylarks which is the highest recorded total for anywhere in the UK. These numbers seem incredible but as Clive pointed out skylarks are in decline. Their population halved during the nineties and are still declining. Just imagine what the spectacle must have been like before the decline!
For further details of Clive's work over the weekend, click on the link below:
http://www.vismig.org/trektelling.asp?telpost=851&site=0&land=5&taal=2&datum=20130928