Pribilof Islands - Part IV

 Returning to the Island of St Paul as part of the Pribilof group in the Bering Sea for the

4th and final part of our visit, the map may give a better idea of just how remote these outposts are!

On that final day we headed for the sea-cliffs and more particularly the

Bird Colony's with

TUFTED PUFFIN

crowding the ledges with the occassional

HARBOUR SEAL
hauling itself across the rocky shore-line, and ledges crammed

with many 'THOUSANDS' of
BRUNNICH'S GUILLEMOT

which we had seen across the Westerman Islands in Iceland year's before
and what the Americans call Thick-billed Murres.

What a surprise then when this individual turned up in

PORTLAND HARBOUR, DORSET
in the winter of 2013 which was an extreme 'crowd-pleaser'!

Distant view of Saint Paul's Island

RED-FACED CORMORANT

PARAKEET AUKLET

along with

HORNED PUFFIN
In all of that at at lower altitude

pockets

of the delightful (juvenile)

ROCK SANDPIPER
but only a single

SABINE'S GULL
across the whole visit, while we feel it only fitting to end with that glorious

RED-LEGGED KITTIWAKE

DON'T LET YOU ABSENT ADRESSEES MISS THIS POST!

Delicate Sound of Thunder - Pink Floyd

 While over the last 2 or 3 weeks we have been inundated by both

HAWTHORN SHIELDBUG
and

RED-LEGGED SHIELDBUG
alike, as has been seen we have also had a decent run of luck with Moths 'first for the year' which continued, despite the sugestion of a deluge with an eye-catching and migrant

DELICATE

which looks as the name suggests.
While shying away from the myriade of Micro Moths, every now and again one will pass our eye and stimulate the need to find out what it is - hoping of course that we have got it right

EVERGESTIS LIMBATA
is the absolute 'cracker' with all of this taking place on a darkish morning.
Reason then why we only resorted to a short video clip mostly for the vocals of a nearby

GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER
while in a quite different direction we have always considered

DWARF GORSE

to be something of a scarce plant here but now popping up all over the Heath.

Amongst that we also found another

FOX MOTH LARVA
Things turned a little more macabre in the Solar Panel Compoud as we happened upon

a 'murder' of no fewer than c15, a minor phenomena in itself,

MAGPIE's

all jockying for position around the 5th dead

RABBIT
of the week while the once ripe

PUFFBALLs

have all but turned to dust
with finally yet more

STARLINGs

on the Farm House roof and

LAWN.

Vintage Stuff

 In the absence of anything new we will kick off with a couple that have become regular in recent days across the Heath

HEATH RUSTIC

along with

HEDGE RUSTIC

both pretty much confined to the Heath around here.
Afterwards, the desire to turn the Reptile Covers again kicked in and finding a

SMOOTH SNAKE
had left its overcoat behind while

ANTS

continue to procreate in their hundreds!
On our way back from the Heath we encountered this

Beautiful and Vintage

LADY
before arrival at the Solar Panel Compound to find

2 or 3 dozen

WHEATEAR
still feeding up prior to the upcoming
Channel Crossing
and accompanied by a

very much still juvenile

ROBIN

with a similarly plumaged juvenile

STONECHAT
we thought we had seen the last of these youngsters!
Back to base and approaching home we found this

GREY SQUIRELL
performing right before our eyes while at the Chicken Coop the opportunist

JACKDAW

and beautifully plumaged young

ROOKs

lay in wait.