A Good Decision

Last night I deliberated long and hard over the weather forecasts for today. I checked my 5 favourite Internet forecasts and it was 4:1 against going ringing to Rossall this morning based on wind strength and direction. Part of me didn't want to believe them because every time I looked out of the window the wind seemed to be dropping and also I wanted to do some ringing at the 'obs'. In the end after a phone call to Ian we decided not to bother ringing this morning.

At first light at Rossall this morning I thought we had cocked up as it wasn't too windy, but within 30 minutes it was far too windy and then it wasn't long before I had a prolonged heavy rain shower. So I did make a good decision after all, but I was still disappointed not to be doing some ringing. Anyway, back to Rossall this morning.

Visible Migration

I had a similar number of Meadow Pipits to yesterday and had 372 heading in a general northerly direction. When I checked my count for yesterday I couldn't believe that it was 374, so close to today's! Other birds on the move included 4,200 Knot, 4 Lesser Redpoll, 35 Linnets, 4 Alba Wags, 99 Woodpigeons, 28 Golden Plovers, Curlew, Swallow and 5 Siskins.

 Lesser Redpoll

Offshore

I suppose the biggest feature were the movement of Little Gulls out of the bay and I had 110 head west, but unfortunately they were a long way out. Other counts offshore included 22 Cormorants, 21 Red-breasted Mergansers, 6 Red-throated Divers, Great Crested Grebe, 231 Common Scoters, 180 Eiders, 8 Gannets and 2 Auk sp. 

 Red-throated Diver (Simon Hawtin)

There were no grounded migrants and after a few hours I headed off to the cemetery. It was fairly quiet in the cemetery and all I had were 2 Chiffchaffs and 3 Swallows whizzing through.