Saturday 7 August 2010

Funny Old Morning

I think I have used 'funny old morning' as a title in the past and I don't apologise for using it again as it was a funny old morning. With the weather we are having at the moment I have had a few funny old mornings of late and suspect that there are a few funny old mornings to come!

The forecast last night was for light rain this morning with a moderate west-southwesterly breeze. The weathermen got the wind strength and direction right but not the amount of precipitation; it remained more or less dry all morning. I decided to give Rossall Point a try as there was a tide at about 9.30 a.m. so I decided to watch the incoming tide from 6.30 a.m. onwards.

As the tide rolled in Oystercatchers were pushed further up the beach and eventually on to a small sandy island that was later covered by the tide. They numbered 347 and were supported by smaller numbers of other waders including 4 Curlews, 5 Ringed Plovers, 16 Turnstones, Whimbrel and 7 Dunlin. As I said it was a funny old morning.

 Oystercatcher Island
 
The sea was equally as quiet with 19 Common Scoters, 28 Sandwich Terns and 23 Gannets. No Manxies, no Skuas, no nothing else. As I said, it was a funny old morning. Counting Sandwich Terns can be problematical at Rossall, and I think I have mentioned this before as well, as they often feed in a large circuit in the bay. It means that you are constantly adding and subtracting to get an accurate count. So called 'cutting edge' birders have put out some exceedingly stringy high counts from here in the past. There's nothing like knowing your own patch.


Sandwich Tern (above and below)



I had a Lesser Redpoll go over this morning, which I thought was slightly unusual for the time of the year, so when I left Rossall I had a look in Fleetwood Cemetery. Why I did this I don't know, as it was obviously shaping up to be another funny old morning. The conditions were all wrong for any migrants to be about but that usual birders blind optimism drove me on. I wish I hadn't bothered as I saw bugger all!

The funny old morning continued when I called in at Fleetwood Marsh Nature Park in the hope of some 'fresh' waders on the shallow pool. No 'fresh' waders and very little else, only single Swift, House Martin, Willow Warbler and Reed Bunting, and 16 Coots and 4 Little Grebes.

The forecast for tomorrow is looking like it might be okay to do some ringing so I am hoping for a cracking morning tomorrow, not a funny old one!

2 comments:

Captain Shagrat said...

It's a funny old day here in Blackburn, bright sun then chucking it down, repeat 10 times and you will get the picture. Nice header btw

Phil Slade said...

An interesting point about the feeding sarnies.As we both know lots of bird species establish feeding circuits when they find a source of food, going off for a while to feed elsewhere then returning. Obvious examples Swift and Swallow - why should sarnies be any different?