Thursday 19 March 2015

More Migrants And Another Moth

I did manage to get some mist nets up at the Obs this morning and it was slow but steady. I had clear skies again with a 5 mph northerly wind. It was a touch misty at first light, but this soon cleared, although visibility would be average at best.

 There were a few Blackbirds around this morning, but they were all local
breeders.

The only obvious grounded migrants I had this morning were two Goldcrests and a single Tree Sparrow. I heard the Tree Sparrow calling and thought that it was going over, but instead it was perched in some Hawthorns in front of one of my nets!

 Tree Sparrow

I couldn't really tell whether the 'vis' was heavier or lighter than yesterday as I was 400 m in from the coast and looking after mist nets, so sometimes my concentration wasn't directed skywards. Nevertheless I did record some vis in the form of 66 Meadow Pipits, five Lesser Redpolls, five Alba Wags, seven Curlews, four Jackdaws, 77 Pink-footed Geese, two Grey Wagtails, a Goldfinch, a Chaffinch, 15 Whooper Swans and a Linnet.

 Another photogenic Dunnock, but a different bird to yesterday's poser.

There's plenty of Lesser Celandine flowering at the moment.

Raptors were represented this morning by females of Kestrel and Sparrowhawk. I managed to ring ten Meadow Pipits and a single Greenfinch; not exactly 'rocking', but good to get a first ringing session in at the Obs for me for the spring.

 Meadow Pipit

Back home my moth trap yielded just a single moth again, but this time it was a Common Quaker.

I'm waiting to find out if I have a site visit to do over near Burnley in the morning or not, and if I don't I'll brave another 5:00 am alarm call and do some more migration monitoring at the Obs.

2 comments:

Warren Baker said...

I like the hand held Mipit :-) Your camera is much busier than mine mate, not much light here for the past few days :-(

The Hairy Birder said...

It must be bad if you aren't getting any shots Warren! Mind you it's been a bit murky all day today up here as well.