Saturday 23 September 2017

Primaries Flash 'Silver' in Sunlight

I birded the farm fields at the Obs this morning and sadly because of looming end of September deadlines with work I didn't have time to operate any mist nets. Although with the beauty of hindsight I wouldn't have caught much! The day dawned with a hazy single okta of cloud cover and a 10 mph southeasterly wind that would have troubled the nets if I had put any up!

The vis was very slow to start this morning, and even when it peaked it was little more than a trickle, and then it was all over by 9:00 am. My meagre totals were twelve Alba Wags, four Reed Buntings, three Grey Wagtails, a Chaffinch, 21 Meadow Pipits, eight Swallows, a Linnet, four Carrion Crows and 50 Pink-footed Geese.

Grounded migrants were equally as thin on the ground, although five Stonechats was nice, but just a single Goldcrest was best of the rest. A Fox brightened things up that crossed the path and stopped in the middle of the path, stared intently at something and moved on.

It was also quiet on the sea with just 23 Sandwich Terns, five Shelducks, a Gannet, two Eiders, a Red-throated Diver, thirteen Common Scoters, three Guillemots and an Auk sp

I've downloaded the Collins Bird Guide app. to my phone and it looks good. I was having a look through it and comparing it with the book version and I opened Common Scoter where it described the males primaries as flashing 'silver' in sunlight, and that is exactly what I was seeing this morning. The two groups of Common Scoters that I saw had mainly males in the flock and their primaries did indeed flash 'silver' in the sunlight.

I pulled one of my 2012 notebooks off my book shelf and on 23rd September 2012 Ian and I were ringing in the coastal park. In fact we only ringed one bird, a Goldcrest, and just like today the wind was southeasterly. Of interest my notebook, and not my memory, tells me that a Great Spotted Woodpecker (migrant) dropped in to the trees and we had a Marsh Harrier go east. I do remember the Marsh Harrier and it was high over the bay. Where it had come from I'm not sure, but it had certainly arrived high over the sea!

It's similar weather tomorrow, so I'll do a similar thing, but I hope the birds aren't similar!

No comments: