Friday 21 September 2012

Pastures Old

I had a site visit Over Wyre this morning and after that was completed I decided to visit two former birding patches of mine as it 'felt' like a classic autumnal morning (calling Goldcrests, Pinkies flying over etc).

First of all I headed to Fluke Hall, an area of broadleaved woodland on the coast adjacent to the Lune estuary and Morecambe Bay. I had forgotten how hard it was to search for migrants in woodland; there's too much cover! My hat goes off to anyone who regularly birds a site like this. I much prefer my bit of coast with limited amounts of cover, it makes it far easier to find grounded migrants. It was fairly quiet in the woodland with just five Goldcrests and three 'ticking' Robins.

There were a number of Swallows, about 90, feeding over the stubbles of a recently harvested field and in the wetter areas were 20-30 Meadow Pipits. About 500 Pink-footed Geese arrived from the north and headed south, and there was a flock of 260 Lapwings on the foreshore.

 Pink-footed Geese

I then headed to Lane Ends, which was a former active ringing site (less so now) of our group, and had a wander through the now very mature and over-grown broadleaved plantation. Even though it is right on the coast all I could find in this 'jungle' was a single calling Goldrest. The problem with the site as far as a migrant spot goes (we have ringed Yellow-browed Warbler here in the past!) is that it is too far east into Morecambe Bay.

The wind is dropping off tonight as the high pressure builds so at the moment it is looking good for some vis tomorrow and perhaps a few Meadow Pipits ringed at the obs. I'll let you know.

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