Dark to Light

At this time of year it isn't a chore to get up to be out by first light. My alarm went off at 6:15 a.m. and by just after 6:30 I was ready to go out and it was still dark. So I picked up my latest copy of Scottish Birds and sat down to read for a bit waiting for it to come light. The next time I looked out it was virtually light and it had gone from dark to light by what seemed like a flick of a switch!

I headed to the Point to have a look at the sea on the incoming tide and record any vis. It was murky out in the Bay to the north and this had the effect of more or less curtailing any vis. Ian was already in position in front of the tower, and I joined him to shelter from the keen south-southeasterly wind.

As I mentioned before the vis was nearly non-existent and all we had was 45 Meadow Pipits and an Alba Wag! The sea was nearly as quiet with just five Shelducks, six Red-throated Divers, a Red-breasted Merganser, a Gannet, five Auk sp., 18 Cormorants, two Guillemots and an Eider.

 Meadow Pipit

There was quite a passage of Black-headed Gulls west out of the Bay and when I joined Ian he said that he had already recorded at least a thousand! All I manged was 116!

A male Stonechat on the edge of the dunes was the only thing that resembled anything grounded. On my way home I had a look in the cemetery, but conditions were challenging searching for grounded migrants in the blustery weather and all I could find were five Goldcrests and a single migrant female Blackbird.

So the plan for tomorrow morning is to get up five minutes later, then I won't be tempted to read something, and I'll be out earlier. That appeals to me, that does!

Chiffies and Crests

I had a couple of hours to spare this morning, well perhaps not to spare, more rather hard won, and I decided to see if there were any migrants around at the Obs. At first light I had full cloud cover with a strong southeasterly wind.

The wind was a bit of a problem actually as it was moving the vegetation around to some considerable degree, making searching for passerines difficult at two of my favoured spots. Because of this it was difficult to tell whether it was quiet, or whether it was the viewing conditions making birds seem thin on the ground.

My first port of call was the cemetery, and the Sycamores along the west side so favoured by Yellow-browed Warblers resembled windmills rather than trees in the strong wind. The south side was more sheltered and this is where five Goldcrests and three Chiffchaffs were hanging out. An immature male Sparowhawk and a few Meadow Pipits overhead made it in to my notebook.

 Chiffchaff. I didn't take any pictures this morning and this shot of a Chiffie

 in the hand was the only picture I had taken at this time of year!

Next port of call was the coastal park and this was slightly more sheltered with actually slightly less birds! Three Goldcrests and just a single Chiffie was all I could muster.

The weather synopsis for this evening in to tomorrow morning looks interesting with a band or rain moving rapidly through from the west, that peters out in the early hours. There's a chance that it could drop a few migrants in, but the chance of me rolling out of my pit early is slim as I'm out for a few beers this evening!

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!

Pintails and Pinkies

It was chilly yesterday morning at the Point with a 15 mph northeasterly wind, nearly full cloud cover and occasional showers. Ian and I took shelter on the western side of one of the buildings overlooking the dunes.

The first bird I recorded before I got to the buildings was a Kittiwake that flew along the tide line as I walked along on top of the dunes, and this was the only Kitti of the morning. A Grey Wag over calling was the first of four, and due to the weather conditions (blocking cloud to the north) the vis only consisted of two Skylarks and five Meadow Pipits!

I purposefully left out the arrival of Pink-footed Geese from the above vis totals as they were the main feature of the morning, besides some limited action on the sea. Pinkies were continually moving south and southwest all morning in generally quite small skeins. Some were very high, others low, and some looked truly spectacular with the Lakeland fells as a backdrop! I counted 1,116 in a couple of hours.

 Some of the Pinks arriving

The sea was the other feature of the morning, and despite the winds being northeasterly there was always something to keep us interested. We had eleven Sandwich Terns, four Shelducks, four Red-breasted Mergansers, six Common Scoters, 16 Red-throated Divers (some in full summer plumage), three Guillemots, 13 Pintails, two Gannets and a Great Crested Grebe.

 Looking across the bay to the Lakes

I've got another busy week ahead of me in the office I'm afraid, but once I get to next weekend things should be slackening off and hopefully it will be a month long period of daily birding!

August's Ringing Totals

Over on the right you will see that I have updated the ringing totals for Fylde Ringing Group up until the end of August. At 1523 birds ringed we are 690 down on this time last year. Let's hope for a good autumn to catch up!

Four new species for the year so far were ringed in August and these were Kingfisher, Redstart, Grasshopper Warbler and Garden Warbler.

Below you will find the top 5 ringed during August and the top 10 'movers and shakers' for the year.

Top 5 Ringed in August

1. Linnet - 145
2. Swallow - 94
3. Goldfinch - 63
4. Reed Warbler - 42
5. Goldcrest - 21

Top 10 Movers and Shakers for the Year

1. Linnet - 209 (up from 6th)
2. Goldfinch - 153 (same position)
3. Swallow - 145 (up from 7th)
4. Blue Tit - 103 (down from 1st)
5. Reed Warbler - 90 (up from 8th)
6. Pied Flycatcher - 79 (down from 3rd)
7. Sand Martin - 67 (down from 5th)
8. Great Tit - 56 (up from 9th)
9. Blackcap - 40 (up from 10th)
10. Willow Warbler - 35 (straight in)

The forecast is looking reasonable for the weekend, so fingers crossed I'll get some birding and ringing in at the Obs.

Crests Not Leach's

The 'Hairy Birder' is stuck indoors at the moment up to his eye-balls in Countryside Stewardship Mid-tier applications that have an end of September deadline to be submitted to Natural England by, so today's brief blog entry is about grounded Goldcrests from yesterday, before all the Leach's and Sabs Gulls of the past couple of days!

 Goldcrest on a sunnier day than today

And to add 'insult to injury' I'm stuck indoors all week! However, my master plan is to have the decks cleared by the end of next week and take the remainder of September and all of October off to bird...bring it on!

The forecast Saturday night was for a brief ridge of high pressure to nudge in to the west and then for rain showers in the early hours after midnight. Unfortunately, it was forecast for the wind to pick up rapidly during the morning with a rain front rolling in by mid-morning. So sadly there was no chance of mist nets, but I did have a blustery ramble around the farm fields at the Obs. At first light I had full cloud cover with a 15 - 20 mph west-southwesterly wind.

First up were some 'ticking' Robins and the first of my dozen Crests. My first Goldcrest was calling from the copse and then another from the herb garden, which isn't unusual as there is usually always a couple in autumn knocking about these areas. However, what sparked my interest was that the other ten were from the farm hedgerows that were quite wind-battered with their exposed location, and even odder were a couple calling from the dry reedbed behind the sea wall. Interestingly, I didn't have any in the migrant habitat in the dunes and also the Crests were the only grounded migrants I recorded.

I had a brief look on the sea and all I had were 66 Sandwich Terns south and a couple of male Eiders. The vis was similarly unproductive, understandably so, with three Alba Wags, a Chaffinch and ten House Martins south. The walk back across the fields to my car was also unproductive other than a male Sparrowhawk working the hedge and ditch.

That's me signed off until weekend!

 Leach's Petrel - this is what I should have been watching this week and 

getting some better shots than this!

First Mipits Of The Autumn

I had my first ringing session at the coastal farm fields at the Obs this morning and at 5:30 am I had clear skies with a light southeasterly wind. It had been clear overnight, so I did wonder what the morning would bring when it got light. I got the nets up in the half-light and poured a coffee, waiting for the dawn.

There was a little vis this morning, but it was slow, and I suppose typical of early September. My meagre totals included 15 Meadow Pipits, four Grey Wagtails, ten Swallows, four House Martins, one Alba Wagtail, one Goldfinch and 30 Linnets (single flock).

I ringed ten birds as follows:

Wren - 4
Robin - 3
Meadow Pipit - 2
Blue Tit - 1

 Robin

As it warmed up later in the morning there were a few butterflies on the wing and I recorded four Red Admirals and two Speckled Woods.

 Speckled Wood

The only grounded migrant I had this morning was a single Goldcrest calling from the conifers, but there was a good number of Blue Tits around and I had eleven in total which is unusual for such a coastal location.

It's going to be too windy for ringing tomorrow, but as there is a morning tide I'll try and have a look on the sea before the rain comes in.