Late Mipit Surge

The forecast was okay this morning, okay in as much as it was calm enough to get nets up at Rossall, but it didn't look brilliant for dropping too many migrants in. Then again this is Spring; a hurried urgent season compared to the lazy slowness of Autumn.

Ian and I met at 5.30 a.m. and put four nets up and engaged the MP3 players with various songs and calls. The ringing was comparatively slow and we ringed 11 birds and recaptured (brackets) 3 as follows:

Chiffchaff - 1
Willow Warbler - 2
Wren - 1 (2)
Tree Pipit - 2
Meadow Pipit - 3
Linnet - 1
Blackbird - 1
Blue Tit - (1)

 Blue Tit

Chiffchaff

Linnet - female

Linnet - male

Wren

We also controlled a Linnet; L623149 anyone? The Tree Pipits were the first ringing records for the 'obs' and had been 'pulled' down by an MP3 lure.

 Tree Pipit

Even though it was overcast the cloud cover was actually quite high and the visible migration was interesting. As hinted at in the title we had a good number of Meadow Pipits head north and in total we had 583, which is a really good count so late in the Spring for Mipits. Other birds on 'vis' included 9 Goldfinch, 4 Alba Wags, 8 Tree Pipits, 10 Swallows, 3 Chaffinch, 42 Linnets, 2 Lesser Redpolls, Siskin, Sand Martin and 5 Woodpigeons.

Grounded birds were restricted to 4 Wheatears, Chiffchaff and 3 Willow Warblers. After the 'obs' I had a look in the Cemetery and it was obvious that a few Willow Warblers had arrived overnight as I had 13 feeding in trees along the western edge; the closest edge to the coast incidentally. Other than that there was nothing else grounded.

 Willow Warbler

The forecast is looking similar for tomorrow and as ever I'll be out to see what's about!