Monthly Archives: August 2023

Storm Petrel Ringing Recovery

I recently bumped into a fellow dog-walker, Vivienne Glew and her dog Baillie, who told me that she had recovered a moribund Storm Petrel that had dropped into the sea near Irvine harbour mouth. While the bird didn’t last long, Vivienne did notice that it was ringed. She sent the details off to the Natural History Museum and the BTO returned the following ringing info:

Ringing Scheme: London
Ring Number: 2694931
Species of bird: Storm Petrel (Hydrobates pelagicus)

This bird was ringed by D Manley as age at least 1 year, sex unknown on 12-Aug-2015 00:30:00 at Annagh Head, Bellmullet, Mayo, Ireland (54deg 14min N -10deg -7min W).
It was found 2883 days after it was ringed, 379 km from the ringing site, direction ENE.

My thanks to Vivienne and Baillie for such an interesting chat.

August 2023 Photos


Grey Heron, Dumfries House, ©Dave Grant, 2023

Female Peregrine, ©Dave Grant, 2023

Jackdaw, ©Dave Grant, 2023

Whinchat, Royal Troon GC, ©Bruce Kerr, 2023

Juvenile Kittiwake, Dipple, ©Dave Grant, 2023

With the autumn migration underway (really!) it made sense to clear away images from this Spring. The above are just a sample of the stuff added to the Photo Gallery. My thanks to Dave Grant, Angus Hogg and Bruce Kerr for sending them in.

Sand Martins of Gailes Marsh

I recently bumped into local artist Hugh Loney at Gailes Marsh SWT reserve in Irvine. Like me he was enjoying watching the Sand Martins at their new purpose-built colony. He had set up a video camera and told me that it was an old model that was a bit slow which had a lovely effect and showed me the some of the ghostly images. He has kindly sent some in and they are shown below. I’m sure you’ll agree that they are wonderfully different from the usual photos.

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