BIRD NOTES FROM THE ISLE OF MAY AUTUMN 1909 7 



flew to the wall and there proceeded to demolish its prey. 

 When put off the wall it still stuck to its caterpillar, carried 

 it off and no doubt ate it elsewhere. There were a good 

 many Siskins about and very tame, a Spotted Flycatcher, 

 a Tree Pipit, two White Wagtails and a Little Bunting, 

 which when put up out of some thistles sat on a wall, 

 erecting the feathers of its head and uttering repeatedly 

 a peculiar single note, several Swallows, a Carrion Crow 

 (C. corone}, and a Dunlin (T. a!pina\ the last-named feeding 

 on the grass among a large flock of Starlings. 



On 2 /th September we saw only one Ring Ouzel, and 

 the Warblers were much the same as yesterday except that 

 we saw three Yellow-browed Warblers instead of two. A 

 couple of Hedge Accentors (A. modularis] had arrived, 

 White Wagtails and Tree Pipits were still on the island, 

 and a small flock of Common Scoter (CE, nigra) were seen 

 in the sea off the North Ness. 



The second fortnight of our stay opened in a promising 

 manner, a light east wind blowing for the first two days, but 

 after this the wind changed and we soon had a succession 

 of fresh or strong southerly and westerly winds preventing 

 much migration being seen on the island. 



There were a great many Turdinae on 28th September. 

 Blackbirds (T. inerula) and Thrushes (T. musicus] abounded. 

 Redwings and Ring Ouzels were present in some numbers, 

 while the scolding note of the Missel Thrush was heard and 

 the bird was seen flying from one point of vantage to 

 another. The Warblers seen included a Lesser Whitethroat, 

 a good many Blackcaps and Garden Warblers, a Willow 

 Warbler, a Chiff-chaff, and two Yellow-browed Warblers. 

 There were still a good many Siskins, which species was 

 much more plentiful on the Isle of May this autumn than in 

 1907 or 1908. On the 29th there were still a lot of 

 Thrushes and Blackbirds, the other three members of this 

 family having left ; also a good many Robins (E. rubecula], 

 a few Redstarts, a Lesser Whitethroat, several Garden 

 Warblers and Siskins, and two Wrens (T. parvulus], the 

 first of the season. 3Oth September and ist October were 

 poor days ; we saw the last Lesser Whitethroat of the year 

 on the former day, and the last Redstart on the latter. On 



