More Mipits on the Move

What a funny old morning it was this morning weather wise and it certainly had the Mipits confused. At first light at Rossall Point I had full cloud cover with a force 3 southerly wind. This later veered to southwest and for the first couple of hours I had a number of showers and the visibility out in the bay was poor.

I had Meadow Pipits heading east, northeast, straight north, west and south! It really did seem to depend on what was happening with the weather. They were wanting to generally head between north and east across Morecambe Bay, but the squally showers were forcing birds back to Rossall after attempting to cross the bay. I was even picking Mipits up in my scope heading west out of the bay, presumably after getting disorientated and trying to make landfall.

There was a supporting cast of a few other species on 'vis' and I had the following totals:

Meadow Pipit - 374
Alba Wagtail - 6
Linnet - 17
Sand Martin - 1
White Wagtail - 1
Golden Plover - 10
Lesser Redpoll - 2
Chaffinch - 1
Siskin - 1
Swallow - 1

 Pied Wagtail

Waders built up as the tide ran in and I had 89 Oystercatchers, 76 Sanderlings, 192 Turnstones, 300 Dunlin and 2 Grey Plovers. The sea was very quiet as it was 'locked up' in murk most of the morning and all I could manage were 126 Eiders, Sandwich Tern, 44 Common Scoters, 10 Gannets, Red-throated Diver and a Grey Seal. The only grounded migrant I had was a single Goldcrest calling from an isolated bush on top of the dunes.

 Turnstone (Ken Hindmarch)

I then called at the Cemetery to see if there were any grounded migrants, but I didn't hold up much hope because of the weather. I was wrong as I had 2 Goldcrests and 4 Wheatears. My second Swallow of the day headed west towards the coast as well.

Buoyed up by the Wheatears I decided to call at the Nature Park on my way home to see if there were any there as I just happened to have a couple of spring traps and some meal worms with me! No Wheatears but I did have singing Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler. Out on the pools were 15 Tufted Ducks, 8 Coots and 3 Little Grebes.

It's looking too windy again tomorrow for ringing so it will probably be another sea watch for me. In fact looking at the charts through until next Wednesday it is looking like it will be quite breezy from the southwest each morning.