Tuesday 25 October 2016

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Over the past two days I have been carrying out a bird survey in deepest, darkest Merseyside. Yesterday's survey was afternoon to post-dusk and today it was pre-dawn to noon.

The weather conditions yesterday afternoon and evening were 6 oktas cloud cover with a 5 - 10 mph southeasterly wind. The area has coniferous woodland, mixed woodland, broadleaved woodland and arable land in the form of over winter stubbles (spring cropping). The woodland areas held a mix of species including eight Goldcrests, two Buzzards, five Jays, a Siskin, three Redwings and 21 Long-tailed Tits.

In the more open farmland areas, of interest I recorded two Linnets, 30 Goldfinches and five Grey Partridges. The main feature of the survey was the Pink-footed Geese and I had 5817. Five thousand of these were birds flying over low at dusk heading to a coastal roost. Also at dusk I had a Great White Egret fly over with a Little Egret.

 Pink-footed Geese

Fast forward to this morning and it was quieter than I expected. I did expect a bit of vis, and there was some, but only a handful of Redwings, 54 Fieldfares and 47 Skylarks. In the woodland areas were nine each of Goldcrest and Long-tailed Tit, plus seven Jays. Pink-footed Geese were a feature again with 1564 recorded.

 Red Squirrel. This little chap crossed the path ion front of me, but sadly
too far away for a decent shot!

I've got to feed on the Moss tomorrow, so it will be interesting to see if the Tree Sparrow numbers have built up or not.

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