A Bit Of 'Vis' and That

The 0545 start at the 'obs' that Ian and I had this morning was a little late and in the next few days we will have to make it 0530! Whilst putting the nets up in the half-light we heard some Pink-footed Geese and over the next few minutes we had 561 head north.

Meadow Pipits were the first birds to get moving and we had 240 followed by other members of the 'vis' cast including Alba Wagtail, 34 Linnets, House Martin, 16 Goldfinch, 5 Swallows, 39 Woodpigeons, Tree Pipit, 7 Siskins, Sand Martin, 800 Knot and Chaffinch.

 Meadow Pipit

The Sparrowhawks were giving their display as usual and the female was pursued by two males. Later in the morning one of the males was cruising around the site giving stonking views. A high flying male late in the morning might have been one of the trio, but it could equally have been a northward bound migrant.

At first we thought there was little grounded with perhaps just one Willow Warbler and a single female Wheatear. However, some high dense cloud built from the south which switched the vis off, but immediately afterwards we extracted 3 Willow Warblers and 2 Chiffchaffs from our nets. There was obviously a fall of Willow Warblers today as a phone call from Ian later told me that he had seen 60-70 around Fleetwood at various sites.

 Willow Warbler

We ringed 15 birds as follows (recaptures in brackets):

Meadow Pipit - 7
Lesser Redpoll - 1
Linnet - 2
Willow Warbler - 3
Chiffchaff - 2
Dunnock - (2)

 Lesser Redpoll

I'm back to the 'black sands' tomorrow for some more farmland birds and perhaps the odd migrant or two!