Sunday 15 April 2018

One Of Those Mornings

It was one of those mornings where it wasn't brilliant, nor was it poor. It seemed to have promise, but failed to deliver. Perhaps frustrating would be a better description.

I headed to the coastal farm fields at the Obs at first light to be greeted with 4 oktas hazy cloud with a 15 mph southeasterly wind. By 0800 the cloud had increased to 7 oktas, and as I found out when I tried to do a short sea watch it was pretty murky out at sea with poor - moderate visibility at best!

The first bird I recorded was a singing Chiffchaff as soon as I got out of my car and this gave the feeling that there might be more grounded migrants. And there was, but not that many. In total I had three Chiffchaffs, a Goldcrest, a Willow Warbler and best of all a singing, or should I say reeling, Grasshopper Warbler.

 Grasshopper Warbler

There was some 'vis' but it didn't last long, perhaps some blocking weather moved in further south. The short burst included one hundred Meadow Pipits, four Siskins, 16 Goldfinches, 21 Linnets, 14 Lesser Redpolls, a Swallow and three Alba Wags.

As I mentioned before it was murky out at sea and there didn't seem any point in prolonging my sea watch so all I had was three Sandwich Terns, 32 Common Scoters, two Gannets, a Red-throated Diver, two Great Crested Grebes, a Guillemot, 70 Pink-footed Geese and a male Eider.

Back at home I checked my moth trap and I had trapped three Early Greys, two Hebrew Characters, three Common Quakers and a Clouded Drab.

It's a mixed week weather-wise coming up, so I'm not sure what I'll get done. I've got plenty of breeding bird surveys lined up should the weather play ball. I'll be sure to keep you posted.

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