A Scattering Of Migrants

The weathermen got the forecast right for this morning and as they suggested it was too windy for any ringing at the obs, so it was a few hours birding for me. At first light there was full cloud cover with quite a dense fog. As the morning progressed this eventually cleared to leave virtually clear skies.

As soon as I went through the gates at the obs I had a Willow Warbler singing and a Goldcrest calling from the copse. I would record a further two Willow Warblers and four Goldcrests on my walk round. There weren't huge numbers of grounded migrants this morning but I did have 14 Wheatears, a Snipe, four Chiffchaffs and a Tree Sparrow. The best grounded bird I had was a stonking male Ring Ouzel. In fact over the past couple of days there has been a few at the obs.

 Wheatear

 The grounded Tree Sparrow

It was interesting that when the fog was at its densest Meadow Pipits were still moving. They were arriving from the south and west and were heading east at first until the fog cleared, and then were heading north. My vis totals included 72 Woodpigeons, a Curlew, four Redwings, 638 Meadow Pipits, nine Alba Wags, 25 Linnets, 30 Siskins, a Redpoll, two Goldfinches, a Tree Pipit, three Swallows, a Chaffinch, 200 Knot and 25 Pink-footed Geese.

It is forecast to rain overnight, but there might be a few clear slots after midnight. I would normally treat myself to a lie in on such a forecast, but as it's mid-April I'd better not! I'll let you know tomorrow whether I made the wrong decision!

Singing Greenfinch