No Two Days The Same

Ian and I were back at Rossall this morning at 5.30 a.m. to do some more ringing and migration monitoring. We had 7 oktas cloud cover at first with a light southeasterly breeze that changed later to a northwesterly direction. Cloud cover slowly built from the northwest and we had a few spots of rain mid-morning that turned off the 'vis' tap that was running at a trickle anyway. Even though we ring just a few hundred metres behind the sea wall we can't actually see over the wall, which would be useful to see how clear or murky it is in Morecambe Bay.

There were no hordes of Mipits this morning but a few other species were in slightly larger numbers than yesterday on vis and this included (all south to north) 6 Tree Pipits, 18 Lesser Redpolls, 42 Meadow Pipits, 13 Linnets, 5 Alba Wags, 5 Swallows, 4 White Wagtails, 7 Sand Martins, 3 Sparrowhawks and a Siskin.

 Linnet

Lesser Redpoll

There was little grounded but did include 2 male Wheatears, Whitethroat, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and female Blackcap. We processed 15 new birds as follows (recaptures in brackets):

Goldfinch - 1
Blackcap - 1 female
Linnet - 6
Lesser Redpoll - 2
Chaffinch - 1
Blue Tit - 1
Greenfinch - 1
Blackbird - 2 (where do these new Blackbirds keep coming from?)
Willow Warbler - (1)

 Goldfinch

I found out from Kevin Scott from the Manx Ringing Group that the Linnet we controlled yesterday was ringed on the Isle of Man at the Point of Ayr in September 2010! From memory I think this is our first bird from the Isle of Man! Have a look at Kevin's excellent Manx Bird Ringing for information on various ringing projects on the Isle of Man.

It looks as though it will be clear tonight with light winds generally from the north with the chance of some mist forming at dawn. We'll give it another go at the 'obs' and see what's what.