Saturday 1 October 2016

Time Limited

I think it's called 'sods law' when you have only a limited amount of time to get out birding and the morning is shaping up to be a good 'n'! This morning was a point in case. The chimney sweep was coming round at 9:00 a.m. so I only had a couple of hours to do some birding. As usual I decided to 'do' the farm fields at the Obs and it was obvious it was going to be a cracking vis day with Meadow Pipits and Pink-footed Geese being the main ingredients.

At first light I had 7 oktas cloud cover with a 5-10 mph southeasterly wind. I wondered if there could be a few grounded migrants around as immediately I had two Goldcrests and eight Wrens. There seemed to be a few Robins and Blackbirds around, plus a male Wheatear along the sea wall.

As I said earlier vis was the feature of my short morning and my totals for my brief watch were three Grey Wagtails, 226 Meadow Pipits, four Reed Buntings, five Starlings, nine Linnets, two Chaffinches, 17 Alba Wags, a Siskin, 677 Pink-footed Geese and five Skylarks.

In addition to the 'Pinkies' I also had six pale-bellied Brent Geese that circled round low, before heading off south. They looked to be trying to orientate themselves before heading off in the right direction!

With all the attention being skywards I paid scant attention to the sea and as a result just recorded an Auk sp. and two Red-throated Divers.

It's going to be clear overnight (clear out night) and clear tomorrow with a light northeasterly wind. I'm not sure how much vis there will be tomorrow after today and with clear conditions it is likely to be high. But nevertheless I'll get out and stick a net up at the Obs and see what's what!

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