Monday 9 May 2022

Monday 9th May

No more news of the junco, but despite the rain there's about a gazillion other sightings to get through, so here we go.

Scott and his 10 pals from the Royal Air Force Ornithological Society had 1 canada and 1 barnacle goose amongst the 50+ greylags near Kilchoman, 14 eider and 19 rb merganser at Bowmore, 2 GND and 6 gannets at Claggain Bay, 1 hen harrier at the airport, 40+ knot between Bridgend and Bowmore and 2 dippers at the Woollen Mill. 

Jim spent the day enjoying the weather and seeing a little egret, 79 barwits, 2 blackwits, 5 whimbrel, 19 knot, 1 sum grey plover, 238 ringed plover, and a whopping 80 swallows, all at Gruinart. He also had 7 golden plover at Ballinaby, 24 whimbrel at Coull and 8 sum GND on Loch Indaal. 

James gets BOTD for the 2 tree sparrows on his garden feeders, and David Dinsley had a corncrake at Machir Bay in mid-afternoon and a solo house martin at Laphroaig. 


After letting herself down with BonxieGate yesterday, Mary has bounced back like a champ with this one - the grisly scene left by the larvae of parasitic braconid wasps emerging from the unfortunate marsh fritillary caterpillar that they've been eating away internally since they were injected directly into it as eggs. I think the wasps are cotesia bignelli or cotesia melitaerum, and I had heard that one of them is rarer than the marsh fritillary, so I don't want any wasp witch hunts going on as a result of this. Anyway, pretty cool, and it took your minds off the junco for a minute, I guess?

Thanks to all. 

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