Wheatear Weather

Whatever the weather did or didn't do this morning it certainly brought in some Wheatears in. At various sites around Fleetwood I had 25 in total. At first light I started out at the obs for two reasons; firstly it is only 5 minutes from home and secondly it is smack bang on the coast. At first light there was full cloud cover with a 15 mph SE wind. Straight away it was obvious that there wasn't anything grounded other than 17 Wheatears.

 Wheatear

There was a little 'vis' in the form of 3 Grey Wagtails, Linnet, 223 Swallows and 2 Pied Wagtails. I had a quick look on the sea, but other than 2 Shelducks north there was nothing doing. I then headed to the cemetery but checked the grass strip behind the sea wall on the way and added a further 3 Wheatears plus 6 Meadow Pipits.

Before going into the cemetery I thought I would have a quick look on the golf course and I had a further 5 Wheatears. The only other bird of note was a Whimbrel heading south. By this time the wind had picked up to a near 20 mph southerly and the cemetery was very quiet. The only thing half decent was a male Sparrowhawk and Speckled Wood butterfly.

On my way home I called in at the Nature Park to have a look on the pools and there were 16 Tufteds, 3 Little Grebes and 16 Coots. I had a single Grey Wagtail over and 2 Chiffchaffs feeding in a willow that were a bit of a surprise considering the lack of grounded migrants elsewhere.

The forecast for tomorrow is for the wind to pick-up and turn southwesterly, so a spot of seawatching might be in order, although Monday/Tuesday look better days in terms of wind strength and length of blow.