Comma on thistles at Ferny Ness this afternoon. Seem to have seen less butterflies than usual this year, but comma are now easier to find than some others.
Down at the Seton Burn, an adult winter Mediterranean Gull was on the shore by the burn; after taking a couple of (poor) shots it was joined by a second individual; after a few minutes was able to read her right leg colour ring, red-7P8, thus confirming Cherry Blossom's 8th return (now 10+ yrs old). The red colour-ringed bird first spotted here on 29 July this year was probably the same, if so just a couple of days earlier than last year. She has a rather yellower tip to her beak this time (click on pic and magnify) - also a dark subterminal band (this is contra BWP, where stated "According to Mauersberger (Mauersberger 1970), dark band a remnant of immaturity (3 years old)").
[NB - clearly I'm useless at photographing this bird, but on the seaweed the digiscoping setup cannot cope with the dark/light contrast; she's much more photogenic on the sand; by contrast butterfly photos always seem to work quite well via digiscope, with a nice blurry background, but my images from photographing same close up are always poor.]
End of previous week had a quick look from Ferny Ness on Thursday morning; took a while to check throo over 4000 birds visible, though c. 2450 were BHG; amongst which one ad Med on shore west and 14+ Red-necked Grebes on the sea; very little vismig.
Sunday - stuck home clearly some movement was underway in fine weather with steady Mipit passage and first Siskins for a while. Redpoll on Monday morning. Clive in Angus had a big passage Sunday, trek link.
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