It has been rather better from a birding perspective over the last two days. The wind dropped and the dust settled yesterday, prompting the 3 resident blackcaps to head north once again. A swallow followed shortly afterwards and a few of the cory's stopped loafing and resumed their endless search for food particles on the seas' surface. Today started nicely with two great skuas, 3 med gulls, and a dozen or so LBB and YL gulls recorded during the morning. At lunchtime a tern sp. flew across the ships' wake but remained rather too distant for me to confirm my suspicion that it was of the whiskered variety. Another swallow, a redstart, a kestrel and a lovely sardinian warbler visited the ship for varying amounts of time today, with the kestrel and swallow doing swift flypasts, the redstart momentarily alighting and the warbler staying for 40 minutes or so- catching flies and moths. This bird took a real interest in fly catching from the pedals of a static exercise bike and even managed to take a moth that was a real beak full. To be honest this fit little bird spent more time on the exercise bike than many of the people onboard and probably the less said about that the better!
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| pedal power.....makes me hungry.. |
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| just one more snack... |
I have no idea what type or species of moth this is but they are constantly flying about the ship and have been useful sustenance for many of the passerines that have stopped off during their northward passage.
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