Aborted Ringing Session

I was looking forward to this weekend and also early next week as the forecast was giving light winds and easterlies and it looked perfect for three days of migration monitoring at the obs. It wasn't to be this morning! After listening to the rain on the conservatory roof for several hours in the night (that's the problem of living in a bungalow with a bedroom in the next room to the conservatory!) I got up at 5.15 a.m. and decided to call the ringing off then and let Dave and Huw know as they were travelling a lot further than me.

I've just looked at the forecast again and this rain could linger overnight along the coast of Lancashire. Typical! I will check again this evening and check several forecasts in triplicate before making a decision on tomorrow.

I spent a blustery morning yesterday on a clients farm in Bowland having a look at the grassland of various fields being managed for biodiversity, in this case waders and botanical diversity, to see if the sward height and structure aimed for had been achieved. Below you will find a selection of photographs taken as I walked round.

Ridge and Furrow

Upland stream in full flow

The fells bordering the farm and the Belted Galloways doing their stuff and 

opening up the sward

Green Day

This isn't a reference to that pretty awful American pseudo punk band (give me the Damned, Clash, Stranglers, Cure etc any day), but to the number of Greenfinches that I ringed at the southern end of the obs today. Following on from Sunday it was another morning conducive to operating mist nets with calm conditions and clear skies at dawn. It was obvious it wasn't going to be a morning for grounded migrants, but rather what I could pull down with MP3s.

 Another Greenfinch

After two days of good vis conditions it wasn't a surprise that the vis was a little thin today and included 82 Meadow Pipits, 125 Greenfinch, three Chaffinch, ten Alba Wags, 1,135 Pink-footed Geese, two Grey Wags, two Siskins, two Great Spotted Woodpeckers and a Goldfinch.

As I said before it wasn't a morning for grounded migrants and the only birds that I could say that were truly grounded were a male Stonechat, a Coal Tit and a Reed Bunting.

The main feature of the morning, and the bit that kept me really busy, was the ringing and I processed 64 new birds as follows:

Greenfinch - 53
Goldfinch - 2
Blue Tit - 1
Robin - 1
Meadow Pipit - 4
Great Tit - 2
Dunnock - 1

The Greenfinch really are a mystery. If I didn't have an MP3 playing I would see very few on vis, but as soon as I put the MP3 with their song on they drop from the skies! I can only conclude that they are flying over but at a height beyond the range of our eyes and hearing.

The wind is going to be ESE for the next couple of days and pick up a bit. I will probably struggle to get out tomorrow as I have a meeting to attend in the morning and then for the rest of the week I have some surveying to do. So it might be weekend before I am back at the obs.

Foggy Finches

This morning Dave and I were at one of the ringing sites within the obs and during the morning the fog rolled in, rolled out, rolled in and rolled out again! At first light the temperature was a cool 2 degrees and it was calm with clear skies. As I took the poles off my roof rack in the darkness a Barn Owl flew over.

The erratic nature of the fog/mist acted like a tap in turning the vis on and off! However, from a ringing perspective we were quite busy and processed 42 new birds as follows (recaptures in brackets):

Blackbird - 2
Sparrowhawk - 1 male
Greenfinch - 27
Meadow Pipit - 10
Blue Tit - 2
Great Tit - (1)
Robin - (1)

 Sparrowhawk

As is usual for this site we pulled all the Greenfinch down with an MP3 lure and without that I doubt we would have recorded any on vis. Talking of vis it included three Reed Buntings, 191 Meadow Pipits, two Redpoll sp., 12 Alba Wags, a Song Thrush, 106 Greenfinch, six Chaffinch, four Grey Wagtails, 508 Pink-footed Geese, two Siskins, three Skylarks and eight Swallows. These totals were very much an absolute minimum as for large periods of time we were busy ringing and it was hard to record vis at the same time.

 Greenfinch

There were no grounded migrants this morning other than perhaps the two Blue Tits ringed and a party of at least six Long-tailed Tits that moved through.

From Monday to Thursday next week the wind is going to be from the east so it will be interesting to see what arrives in terms of finches and thrushes.

Bonxie Saves the Day

It was one of those mornings, again, where it never really got going and to blame, again, was the murk to the north 'locking down' Morecambe Bay and preventing any substantial vis. At first light the wind was a fairly keen northerly that veered quickly to the northwest with relatively clear skies.

As stated above the vis was slow this morning and included four Grey Wagtails, 26 Chaffinch, five Alba Wags, a Greenfinch, five Mistle Thrushes, five Goldfinch, seven Meadow Pipits, three Whooper Swans (the first for the obs for the autumn) and nine Carrion Crows.

There were a few grounded migrants around this morning in the form of two Blue Tits (that dropped in a la Falsterbo and then 'irrupted' and headed south), a Great Spotted Woodpecker, five Jays, seven Goldcrests and a Chiffchaff.

Whilst parked on our hillock trying to keep an eye on our nets below, skywards and out to sea, Ian picked up a Bonxie chasing a Herring Gull along the shore that brightened up our morning! The ringing was slow with a Goldcrest, a Wren and two Chaffinch ringed.

The wind is swinging round northeasterly tonight as high pressure builds over us, so surely this should bring our first Redwings in. I'll be having a listen this evening as I head out to my 'beer fridge' in the garage during the evening for the occasional beer!

Wandering Youngsters

We received some details from the BTO today of recoveries connected to the obs. Two in particular involved wandering youngsters and were quite interesting. The Google Earth image below shows the direction of movement of a Kestrel, from the obs to South Walney and a Swallow from Wrexham to the obs.

The Kestrel was ringed from a brood of three on 19th June 2011 and was using a natural nest site, perhaps an old crows nest. This bird was found dead at South Walney on 28th January 2012 and was reported as being found freshly dead. Unless the bird travelled around Morecambe Bay it is likely that the bird headed 19 km northwest and flew straight across the bay to spend the winter in the South Walney area. On a clear day South Walney is clearly visible from Fleetwood and I have seen young Kestrels before head out across the bay, but they usually turn back. 

This might well have been the bird as it was one of the brood of three ringed 

that day

It is well known that Swallows will disperse over a wide area and in all directions after fledging before they commence their journey south to Africa. This Swallow was ringed as a chick at Gesford, Wrexham as part of a brood of five on 19th June 2012. We then caught it with other Swallows roosting on 30th July 2012, 93 km to the north of where it was hatched.

The weather isn't looking too bad for weekend and fingers crossed I'll get out ringing at the obs on both days. Sunday looks like the better day in terms of arriving autumn migrants as the wind veers NNE and then ESE; perhaps I'll get my first Redwings of the autumn.

Seeing Red

Ian and I were out at the obs at first light this morning putting up some mist nets in the 5 - 10 mph easterly wind, with only 1 okta of cloud cover. Looking north and east across the bay we could see that Heysham was 'locked' out with murk and this would affect the direction of movement of vis later in the morning.

We ringed only five birds and it was nearly all red in the form of four Robins and a Blackbird. There were 11 Blackbirds around this morning and the bird we trapped certainly didn't look like a continental bird. Other grounded migrants included two Chiffchaffs, a Jay and a Goldcrest.

 Robin

The vis was a little slow in getting started this morning and when it did it was a little to the west of us and moving north to south across the bay avoiding the murk. Birds leaving Walney would have had a clear view of the Fleetwood coastline on the other side. The vis included eight Swallows, 85 Meadow Pipits, eight Goldfinch, ten Alba Wags, six Grey Wagtails, five Greenfinch, 61 Pink-footed Geese, two Mistle Trushes, 31 Linnets, three Magpies and three Skylarks.

The wind is going southerly and then veering westerly overnight, with some heavy ran coming in from the Irish Sea. In the morning it will be quite a stiff westerly and as I am going to a beer festival this evening I might just give birding a miss in the morning!

Little Change

Over to the right I have updated the totals for the year so far for Fylde Ringing Group. September was a poor month for us because of restricted opportunities due to the wet weather. Even our two full time ringers Ian and Phil struggled to get out! We ringed a total of 250 birds in September bringing our totals for the year to 2,705 which is 847 down on this time last year.

We added two new species for the year in the form of Blyth's Reed Warbler and single Treecreeper. Below you will find the top ten movers and shakers that haven't done much moving or shaking:

1. Swallow - 317 (same position)
2. Tree Sparrow - 258 (down from 2nd)
3. Chaffinch - 245 (down from 5th)
4. Blue Tit - 218 (down from 3rd)
5. Goldfinch - 200 (down from 4th)
6. Great Tit - 131 (same position)
7. Lesser Redpoll - 115 (same position)
8.=  Reed Warbler - 92 (up from 9th)
       Willow Warbler - 92 (same position)
10. Meadow Pipit - 83 (same position)

 Blyth's Reed Warbler

The only species to be knocked out of the top ten is Whitethroat and those species just bubbling under include Wren (62), Robin (67), Blackbird (71), Whitethroat (71) and Greenfinch (64).

Let's hope we get some settled easterly weather in October, although it hasn't got off to a good start!