A Few Little Gulls and Assorted Spring Migrants

It was another early alarm call for me this morning to spend the morning seawatching and monitoring visible migration at the obs. Once again it was cold in the 15 mph south-southwesterly wind and with the shelter of the tower casting a shadow over me it was still cool even when the sun came up. I spent three hours at the Point and it was interesting, if perhaps a little slow at times, making it hard to stay any longer than three hours.

Walking up to where I would seawatch from there were a nice selection of waders on the beach yet to be disturbed by the scourge of modern birding, dog walkers! The waders included 21 Grey Plovers, nine Turnstones, a Whimbrel, a Knot, 63 Ringed Plovers, 184 Dunlin and 30 Sanderlings.

There was some vis this morning and interestingly a lot of it was westerly (out of the bay), which is usually an autumn direction, before changing to the usual direction for spring, easterly. The vis included a Whimbrel, 11 Meadow Pipits, five Linnets, six Tree Pipits, two Alba Wagtails, six Swallows, nine Siskins, five White Wagtails, a Redpoll, four Carrion Crows, 49 Goldfinches, four Collared Doves and a Yellow Wagtail. Because of the southerly wind I was having to shelter at the front of the tower and this meant that it was difficult to count the vis moving behind.

There was some reasonable passage at sea and as my title suggests the main feature of the morning were Little Gulls. Sea passage consisted of 223 Common Scoters, 74 Arctic Terns, six Sandwich Terns, 50 Red-throated Divers, four Red-breasted Mergansers, five Gannets, ten Eiders, seven Manx Shearwaters, 317 Little Gulls, 80 Pink-footed Geese and a dark morph Arctic Skua.

The Little Gulls were feeding along with the Manxies and Arctic Terns, and the Arctic Skua gave a great aerial performance chasing and harrying an Arctic Tern. The turn of speed and manoeuvrability of the Arctic Tern was impressive, but it was even more impressive for the Skua because of its large size. Awesome!

A Harbour Porpoise close in added to the enjoyment of the morning and the only grounded migrants I had were a Goldcest in the cemetery and a Chiffchaff in the willows by the pools. I checked the water depth of our net rides in the reedbed but it was right at the top of my wellies so it needs to drop a bit yet, or I need to get my waders out. I flushed four Snipe from the reeds and had a calling Water Rail.

 Tufted Ducks

Red-breasted Merganser

The forecast is looking okay in the morning so I might just have to have a couple of hours seawatching before chaining myself to my desk!

Redcaps

Yesterday morning found Craig, Huw and I setting nets up at the obs on a very cold and frosty morning at first, with a hunting Barn Owl for company. As the morning progressed it got warmer but as that south-southeasterly wind picked up it was bitter for a time.

There was some visible migration but as ever it was difficult to do the counts credit whilst operating mist nets. All the following birds were heading north except for the Woodpigeons, which were heading south; 121 Woodpigeons, eight Tree Pipits, 45 Meadow Pipits, a Linnet, nine Siskins, 37 Pink-footed Geese, four Shelducks, 45 Lesser Redpolls, three Carrion Crows, a Whimbrel and three Swallows.

It was obvious that there were a few grounded migrants around, mainly in the form of phylloscs, based on the number of Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers caught plus a single Whitethroat.

The main feature of the morning from a ringing perspective were the number of Lesser Redpolls ringed and our totals for the morning were as follows (recaptures in brackets):

Willow Warbler - 6 (Ian also ringed 17 elsewhere at the obs)
Chiffchaff - 3
Lesser Redpoll - 21
Dunnock - 1 (1)
Meadow Pipit - 3
Blue Tit - 1

 Lesser Redpoll (redcap)

The warmer weather later in the morning enticed a few invertebrates out and a number of Small Tortoisehells were on the wing.

Belated March Ringing Totals

You will see over on the right that I have updated the ringing totals for Fylde Ringing Group up until the end of March. The total of 901 birds ringed is 447 down on where we were this time last year, so let's hope for a good breeding season to pick things up.

Eight new species were added to the totals during March and these were Stock Dove, Collared Dove, Wren, Fieldfare, Nuthatch, Yellowhammer and Little Bunting. The Little Bunting was a first ringing record for the group and was caught by Phil at his feeding station on the moss. In fact the excellent finch totals are down to the hard work Phil puts in at this site.

This month's 'movers and shakers' were as follows:

1. Chaffinch - 107 (same position)
2. Goldfinch - 76 (same position)
3. Brambling - 54 (same position)
4. Reed Bunting - 48 (same position)
5. Great Tit - 36 (up from 8th)
6. Blue Tit - 31 (down from 5th)
7. Tree Sparrow - 20 (same position)
8. Turnstone - 16 (down from 6th)
9. Long-tailed Tit - 15 (same position)
    Siskin - 15 (straight in)

The top five species ringed during March were as follows:

1. Chaffinch - 30
2. Goldfinch - 27
3. Great Tit - 22
4. Brambling - 20
5. Siskin - 15
    Reed Bunting - 15

I don't want to say too much but the forecast is looking good for weekend with a large high pressure moving in stretching from Iberia with southerly winds! Say no more!

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

A Proper Spring Morning

Huw and Me returned to the obs this morning and for the first few hours it felt colder than yesterday with quite a hard frost but at least it was calm and we could get some nets up. The cloud cover that was forecasted to form over night didn't materialise until late morning, but we were to find out through our ringing later on that there had been a fall.

Just like yesterday as we were putting the nets up in the half-light a Barn Owl was hunting the fields; what a cracking sight. There was plenty of vis this morning, but it did seem to take quite a while to get going, but the range of species was less. Heading northwards we recorded 421 Pink-footed Geese, seven Alba Wagtails, 33 Woodpigeons, two Chaffinches, a Linnet, six Siskins, two Skylarks, a Snipe and 1,051 Meadow Pipits.

 Meadow Pipit

We ringed an excellent 59 birds as follows (recaptures in brackets):

Meadow Pipit - 32
Robin - 1
Lesser Redpoll - 8
Reed Bunting - 1
Blue Tit - 1
Wren - 1
Chiffchaff - 7
Chaffinch - 1
Greenfinch - 1 (1)
Goldcrest - 4
Blackbird - 2

 Greenfinch

 Chiffchaff

Based on some of the species ringed and our observation of birds in the field I would say that grounded migrants included a male Wheatear, five Goldcrests, a Reed Bunting, eight Chiffchaffs and two Blackbirds. The only other species of note was a female Sparrowhawk that shot through early on.

Goldcrest

The weather and wind direction for the coming week doesn't look overly promising for migration but as ever I'll keep an open mind and keep looking.

Ringing At Last

At last Huw, Ian and Me managed to have the first ringing session for the spring at the obs this morning. As we put the nets up before first light it was flat calm with clear skies and a ground frost. A Barn Owl hunted ghost like across the fields just as dawn was putting out its fingers splintering the sky red and the first birds on the move were a group of 13 Redwings north.

Visible migration was the feature of the morning, particular Meadow Pipits, as the clear calm conditions were ideal for movement. As usual it was difficult keeping one eye and one ear skywards as we carried out ringing operations and undoubtedly we missed many birds. All the movement was northerly and between 0600 and 0900 we recorded 13 Redwings, 260 Pink-footed Geese, 982 Meadow Pipits, eight Woodpigeons, five Alba Wagtails, 14 Siskins, a Chaffinch, a Linnet, four Goldfinch, five Magpies, seven Lesser Redpolls, a female Blackbird, a Grey Wagtail and two Great Tits.

 Lesser Redpoll

The ringing totals weren't monstrous as we only ringed 13 birds as follows (recaptures in brackets):

Meadow Pipit - 7
Reed Bunting - 1
Lesser Redpoll - 3
Wren - 1 (1)
Greenfinch - 1
Dunnock - (1)

 Meadow Pipit

We had no grounded migrants and no what you would call 'summer migrants'. The forecast is for it to be calm enough for ringing tomorrow and the cloud cover will build over night which night drop a few migrants in; I'll let you know.

Sarnie

It was another cold morning at the obs with a biting 15 mph easterly wind. From the word go birds were on the move but if felt slower than the past couple of days. Heading northwards were 114 Meadow Pipits, ten Alba Wagtails, two Siskins, four Woodpigeons, a Linnet and a Goldfinch.

Grounded migrants consisted of just three Snipe and the sea was nearly as quiet with two Eiders, two Cormorants, a stonking summer plumaged Red-throated Diver and my first Sandwich Tern of the spring. The only waders I had in any numbers were 52 Turnstones on the rocks.

It's remaining cold all week but at least it is going to be dry and I should get some birding done even if it is just through my work.