More Mipits

As I mentioned yesterday a window of opportunity was forecasted by the weathermen and they got it right! At first light at Rossall we were greeted with 4 oktas cloud cover with a 5 mph NE wind. It looked very murky to the east and by 0730 some mist rolled in, but this very quickly cleared and the wind veered easterly. As I waited for Ian to arrive I heard a Green Sand calling and in the half light we tried a Blackcap song on the first net, and on the first net round was a Garden Warbler right above the MP3 player! Wrong Sylvia, but it would do as it was a first for the site for us. I say 'for us' as the site used to be ringed in the 1970s and 1980s by Andrew Cadman and he most certainly ringed Garden Warbler.

 Garden Warbler

We ringed 59 birds as follows (recaptures in brackets):

Garden Warbler - 1
Dunnock - 7 (4)
Robin - 2
Meadow Pipit - 31
Chaffinch - 1
Blue Tit - 7
Greenfinch - 4
Wren - 1
Great Tit - 3
Swallow - 1
Sparrowhawk - 1 male

 Sparrowhawk

Blue Tit

There was quite a bit of 'vis' this morning but not as much as Thursday and the vis totals were as follows; 438 Meadow Pipits, 22 Chaffinch, 6 Grey Wags, 5 Pied Wags, 11 Swallows, 2 Goldfinch, 2 Sand Martin, 8 House Martins, 3 Siskin, Golden Plover, 2 Sparrowhawk and 4 Skylarks. These are counts as detailed in my notebook and not estimates. When you are busy ringing it is difficult to keep tabs on the 'vis' and you could very easily double the counts for some species, particularly Meadow Pipits. It is also sometimes tricky to count the Chaffinch and Siskin, as 'a' call could be one bird or it could be a flock. But when you can't see the calling bird(s), it has to go as a single in the old notebook.

 Meadow Pipit

The best birds we had on vis were 9 Ravens that headed north. They started out as 2 birds that came in calling from the east heading to the coast, but when they hit the coast and headed north a further 7 Ravens joined them. Whether they were all flying together but spread apart, or whether they called each other in we are not sure.

Another cracking morning at the 'obs'!