Gail and I had two walks along the quay this week, and we got it right the first time, but our timing was out on our second visit. On our first visit, five days ago, the tide was falling, and just like the week before, a few waders were dropping in on the newly exposed mud. We had 470 Oystercatchers, that either flew downstream, or stopped off on the mud, before heading downstream again. Three Little Egrets, 39 Redshanks, a Common Sandpiper and thirteen Curlews were with the Oystercatchers, and seven Sandwich Terns headed towards the mouth of the river as well.
A few butterflies were on the wing; 14 Small Whites, two Red Admirals, and a single of the day flying moth, Silver Y. The most interesting insect that we had, was an Ichneumon wasp species, possibly Dusona falcator, but only possibly! I only managed to get one picture of it, and you can see this below. The picture does not do this fantastic beastie justice, as in flight, you could see that above the black tip to its abdomen, it was bright yellow, and you can't see this in the photograph. Before I could get a better picture, it was off!
The Rowan trees along the quay are full of berries, and as we passed them walking back, three juvenile Blackbirds were feasting on them.
Two days ago, we made our second visit to the quay, but we got our timing all wrong, and the tide was in. Not a scrap of mud to be seen, and consequently not a wader to be seen. We killed some time by having lunch in a cafe overlooking the mouth of the river, but even after that, on our return leg, there still wasn't any mud exposed. We could see that the tide was dropping, but not enough. I think we need to consult the tide tables next time.
Five Red Admirals, a Common Darter, five Small Whites, a Silver Y, and two Small Tortoiseshells were on the wing, and that was about it.
The forecast was okay for Gail and I to go ringing at the Nature Park this morning, but with clear skies overnight, and still clear just before 6:00 am, when we arrived on site, I wasn't hopeful for many birds. It was definitely a clear-out night/morning, and too early yet for any reasonable amount of visible migration. At this time of year, most local breeding summer migrants have moved on, and any numbers of continental migrants have yet to arrive.
We put a couple of nets up and kept our fingers crossed, but our predictions proved to be correct. We ringed seven birds as follows:
Whitethroat - 2 (11 for the site for the year, and 6 more than last year's total of 5)
Cetti's Warbler - 1 (8 for the site for the year, and equals last year's total)
Blackcap - 2 (10 for the site for the year, and just 1 short of last year's total)
Reed Warbler - 1
Wren - 1
The Starlings were exiting their roost at the exact time that Gail and I were putting the nets up, so the 2,000 that I put in my notebook was mostly guesswork, and I suspect that there were considerably more than this.
We had a Grey Wagtail and a Tree Pipit south, and that was it for vis. A Great Spotted Woodpecker is always noteworthy here, but they are getting more frequent. And that was it!
In the afternoon we had a walk through the Larkholme Grasslands to see if there were any dragons around the ponds. We had two Common Darters, two Emperors and a male Migrant Hawker.
It is looking settled for most of next week, but it will be clear skies for most of the time, meaning that any migrants will pass straight through. If we get a suitable morning, we will have another try.
I follow an excellent blog called North Downs and Beyond, and I can thoroughly recommend it if you like a good read about nature and conservation. Its author, Steve is a brilliant all-round naturalist, and I have posted many a link to some of his posts on here before.
A couple of weeks ago he wrote a post entitled Impotent about how he feels about climate change, and a lack of action by both individuals and government, and I can totally relate to it. You can read Steve's post HERE, and it is well worth a read, as are all his posts, but this summed up the way I feel very well.
Over on the right you will see that I have updated the ringing totals for Fylde Ringing Group up until the end of August. Three new species for the year were ringed during August, and these were Meadow Pipit, Pied Wagtail and Linnet.
Below you will find the top 10 'movers and shakers' for the year, but I haven't produced a top 5 ringed during August as only one species made it into double figures.
Top 10 Movers and Shakers
1. Sand Martin - 101 (same position)
2. Blue Tit - 85 (same position)
3. Goldfinch - 66 (same position)
4. Great Tit - 57 (same position)
5. Chaffinch - 26 (same position)
Reed Warbler - 26 (up from 7th)
7. Pied Flycatcher - 23 (down from 6th)
8. Lesser Redpoll - 18 (down from 7th)
9. Reed Bunting - 16 (same position)
10. Chiffchaff - 13 (down from 9th)
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