Plagued By The Wind and Other Minor Niggles

Ian and I arrived at Rossall at 0545 to find there was a new lock on the gate! However, a quick call to the caretaker and we were issued with a new key and on our way. Phew! Then we had to negotiate the track which had been churned up by a large tractor that had been on some of the fields muck spreading a few days ago when we had all that rain; I just about made it down. Then there was the wind. Not the handful of mph forecasted last night but a good 10 mph+ northwesterly! We only managed to get three nets up and these were a touch blowy. Consequently we only ringed one bird, a single Meadow Pipit!

 Meadow Pipit

There was some visible migration but with the clear skies it was very high. Most birds were heading from south to north except for a couple of Swallows that headed south. We had 72 Meadow Pipits, 8 Sand Martins, 3 Lesser Redpolls, 21 Goldfinch, 7 Linnets, 5 Swallows, 6 Woodpiegeons, 1 Alba Wag, Lapwing (south), male Sparrowhawk and 3 Siskins.


As expected with clear skies overnight there were no grounded migrants at all. At the moment it looks as though the wind is going to swing round to the east and there is a chance of some fog. The wind is going to be light (famous last words), so we should be okay getting some mist nets up but I'm not happy about that fog. There's still time for it to change!