Yes, Reed Bunting. I also think your Cormorants are Shags.Dave McCormick wrote:I was at Copeland Island yesterday (about 18 miles away from Scotland or so) and there is three Islands, Copeland Island, Mew Island and Lighthouse Island (Mew Island has the lighthouse since they moved it from the Lighthouse Island since it wasn't a good place to be seen) the lighthouse is the brightest in the UK. Lighthouse Island has a RSPB bird observatory and someone I know who is part of the RSPB there, sometimes traps on the island and gets some good moths (a few vagrants from Scotland can appear here) see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copeland_Islands
Apparently during the 1700s a slave ship came by here wanting to stock up at the harbour. It had people taken from their homes from the Isle of Skye and were going to be taken to America as slaves. The Harbour master noticed something unusual, called the police and ended up with the slaves returned to their homes on Skye and the boat owners disappeared and were never seen again.
John Paul Jones (the founder of the American Navy, the man from Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland) also had a sea battle near here (Although I don't remember much about it) and the Donaghadee harbour that is a few miles from here where I got the boat from) was built by John Rennie in 1819, the Scottish man who took the London Bridge and rebuilt it in Arizona. Yes I am not just a nature lover, I am also a history buff.
I went to the big island and it has sheep graising on it. It was dry when the boat left but about 5 minutes after we landed, it began to rain. Typical. I didn't bring my Canon 500D since its not working properly but few weeks I'll have a 600D so have to put up with this for a little longer, but I did bring a camera but quality isn't as good.
The island has a school on it (now disused) and a post box when people lived there as there used to be post transported via boats every day. There used to be people living here but now no one does and the only house is a stay for visitors. There is a small graveyard with a few graves and I think from what I saw, a manx shearwater took a rabbit burrow beside a grave and I saw bones, could have been human dug up by rabbits or shearwaters, didn't want to think about it.
Lots of big jellyfish at the edge of the island and coming onto the shore (not sure yet of which type they are) and there was about 20 common seal basking on the rocks beside the island where we docked. What I saw:
A couple of Manx Shearwater (and a dead young one) lots of gulls (some were attacking me, but I didn't realise I walked into a part of the island covered in sedge grasses that had young gulls in nests in the sedges which I couldn't see, I moved away then), a grouse which flew up from the bracken. On the east coast there was eider ducks with young duckings, two families with 3 ducklings each), common seals (about 30, a few on east side, most on west side), quite a number of Arctic terns (which should be leaving soon back to the Antarctic) here. There was some oystercatchers, lapwings and a single stock dove
There is lots of rabbits (which is how manx shearwater do so well here due to number of rabbit burrows they use here) saw quite a number of dead ones although didn't see any birds of prey that are noted to be here, not many trees on the island so maybe they breed elsewhere and just pass here. Also saw a Mediterranean Gull (very like black headed gull but head colour is black and black headed is more brownish, also bill is thicker in Mediterranean and plumage is also lighter grey), Black Guillemots, Cormorants (around 7-10), Swallows (about 6) and a small bird which I have to ID (image below). One thing that is all over parts of the island (which looks really out of place for obvious reasons) is Himalayan Balsam. Thistles cover the island, as does bracken and sedge grasses. There is also areas of yellow iris and bracken covers the east slopes and some other areas. (didn't get to see the north side of the island)
Not much lepidoptera life but here is some images anyway:
Young Gull:
Arctic Tern:
Cormorants:
Oystercatcher:
Common Seals:
Gulls:
Mew Island Lighthouse:
Is this a reed bunting? I saw several on an elder on east side of the island:
Edit - should read all posts before replying.
Bit hard to see from that distance so wasn't 100% sure.
