Not For The Want Of Trying

It would seem that Yellow-browed Warblers are everywhere except here! I received a text last night from my mate Gary in Northumberland which read"clear skies here tonight with loads of Yellow-browed Warblers queueing up to leave...Yellow-browed in your nets tomorrow I reckon"! Unfortunately there wasn't a Yellow-browed to be seen around the Obs this morning.

I had clear skies this morning with a 10 - 15 mph ESE wind. With that sort of weather I would normally count 'vis' rather than look for grounded migrants, but as there are so many Yellow-broweds around I decided to look for some grounded migrants in the hope of bumping in to a Yellow-browed or two!

I concentrated on the coastal habitats of the northwest corner of the Obs recording area and did two rounds of suitable places such as the cemetery and the coastal park; once on my own at first light and again a little later on when things had warmed up with Ian. We did really try hard but it was very quiet and the vis stopped quite abruptly after about an hour as well.

I have summed up my sightings for both rounds of all sites. Vis included 155 Pink-footed Geese, a Chaffinch, 72 Meadow Pipits, 18 Swallows, twelve Alba Wags, three Linnets, a Skylark and two Grey Wagtails. Grounded migrants comprised of six Robins, seven Blackbirds, three Alba Wagtails and two Chiffchaffs.

 Pink-footed Geese arriving from across Morecambe Bay

I noticed about 120 Turnstones roosting on a wooden pier on the Marine Lakes and I had a look through them for some of our leg-flagged birds. There were five or six of our birds but all were roosting on the leg with the green scheme marker colour ring on with the leg with the flag on tucked away!

 Roosting Turnstones

In the coastal park there were a number of Small Tortoiseshells and Red Admirals nectaring on some Ivy and this spectacle is set to get better as more of the Ivy flowers.

Small Tortoiseshell

  Red Admiral

The forecast is for it to remain easterly overnight and picking up to be quite strong. There is also some cloud coming up from the south in the early hours of tomorrow morning, so fingers crossed it might drop some birds 'in'! I'll let you know if it does.