Migrants And A Moth

I am tentatively back in the birding saddle after my bout of vertigo and this morning I headed out for a few hours birding around the Obs. At first light I had clear skies with quite a dense mist that was slow to clear, and the wind was a 5 mph northeasterly.

 There were a few Dunnocks around this morning, but none of them were 

obvious migrants

As I walked along the sea front the 'vis' was immediate and there were quite a few birds on the move including 14 Goldfinches, a Skylark, eleven Alba Wags, 159 Meadow Pipits, three Curlews, three Linnets, a Tree Sparrow, three Lesser Redpolls, four Grey Wagtails, three Reed Buntings and two Chaffinches.

 Meadow Pipit

Linnet

The sea was relatively quiet mainly due to the poor visibility but I did manage to muster a Red-throated Diver, 28 Eiders, five Red-breasted Mergansers, four Common Scoters, a Shelduck, seven Gannets and two Harbour Porpoises that swam into the Bay.

The best bird on the sea, or should I say over, was the first Obs record for this species since 2010 in the form of an Avocet! I picked it up heading south across the Bay and it eventually made landfall and attempted to land on the shingle beach but was put off and headed east, drifting further north into the Bay again. I can only assume it was en route to Leighton Moss and had become disorientated in the mist.

 Avocet

It was also a morning for grounded migrants and first up was a Tree Sparrow on the coast in some brambles before getting flushed by a, you've guessed it a dog walker, followed by three male Wheatears, a male Stonechat, 13 Goldcrests and a Chiffchaff.

 Goldcrest

 Tree Sparrow

Back home on the moth trap was a single Hebrew Character. The forecast looks okay for some more vis tomorrow and I'm going to try a few mist nets and see if I can ring some Meadow Pipits.

 Hebrew Character

Vertigo Enforced Radio Silence

I'm not trying to make you feel sorry for me, but I feel that I need to explain why I haven't posted for a few days and perhaps why I won't post for a few more days! I'm currently suffering with some form of vertigo and until day I was unable to stand or walk through dizziness and nausea! I'm now popping some pills and starting to feel better, so to keep the blog going over the next few days I may need to revert to some 'blasts from the past'. Hopefully normal service will be resumed as soon as possible!

14th March 1987

For a few years back in the 1980s I used to live in northwest Norfolk in a village called Snettisham and later in King's Lynn. I moved down to Norfolk from Lancashire so I could live and work in one of Britain's best birding counties. I remember it was quite a cold winter down there in 1986/87 (mind you it often is Norfolk) and spring was slow to start, and my birding more or less on this day 28 years ago was definitely a typical winter's day birding rather than one of early spring.

I started off at Cley and it was dull, misty and cold. Before looking on the reserve I did a short seawatch off 'Coastguard's' and clocked up 30 Common Scoters, 12 Red-throated Divers, five Fulmars, a Red-breasted Merganser, Eider and Guillemot. Dark-bellied Brent Goose were numerous with 426 logged during the morning and later I had 1500 at Stiffkey.

 Common Scoter

A look on the reserve produced two Ruff, 200 Wigeons, nine Avocets and three Bearded Tits. I suppose what stands out to me are the Ruff, Avocets and Bearded Tits which would all make it a 'red letter day' if they turned up on my patch today!

I lived in King's Lynn at this time and on my way home I stopped off at my seawatching location on the cliffs at Hunstanton and had more winter fayre in the form of 69 Goldenyes, 5 Long-tailed Ducks, eleven Scaup and 600 Common Scoters. So a late spring that year and I didn't record my first Wheatear until 29th March when back home in Lancashire.

February'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 February. We haven't had a good start to the year but amazingly we are 210 birds up on last year! The top five ringed for the month and the top eight 'movers and shakers' for the year so far can be found below.

Top 5 Ringed February 2015

1. Blue Tit - 32
2. Goldfinch - 18
3. Great Tit - 13
    Chaffinch - 13
5. Coal Tit - 7

Top Eight 'Movers and Shakers' for the Year To Date

1. Blue Tit - 92 (same position)
2. Great Tit - 42 (up from 3rd)
3. Long-tailed Tit - 36 (down from 2nd)
4. Chaffinch - 24 (same position)
    Goldfinch - 24 (up from 6th)
6. Blackbird - 14 (down from 4th)
7. Coal Tit - 9 (up from 10th)
8. Lesser Redpoll - 7 (same position)

Window Gazing

Yesterday I was in south Cumbria at an update meeting for CAP 2015 and during the less interesting moments of the presentations I found myself gazing out of the window. It had been beautiful and clear when I arrived and then slowly the cloud bank built from the west and eventually the rain came in. Before that though I had a few birds go past the window in the form of  Buzzard, then a Raven and then another Buzzard. So it does pay to stop and stare out of the window at times!

A Boxing Day In March

At the weekend Gail and I headed to the Hodder Valley in Bowland to carry out a maintenance visit on my Pied Flycatcher boxes. Most of them were still in good order and I only had to replace two, although I put 2 or 3 on my 'replace next year' list. So a trip to the timber merchants will be in order later in the year to make some boxes to put in stock.

I didn't find anything unusual in the boxes whilst checking them, other than an old wasps nest in one of them (see below). I did find a few bits of fresh moss in one or two boxes as though a few Tits were starting to think about nest building.

 Wasps nest attached to box lid

We didn't see much walking round the woods other than a Woodcock, several Redwings and a couple of Nuthatches. It won't be long before I'm back checking on the Pied Fly's!

Pied Flycatcher; coming soon to a 

woodland near you!

Stockies

I've had a hectic week this week as a result of my elderly father being in hospital and this has meant I've struggled to get out birding; thankfully he's back home and on the mend.

As I've said before I'm winding down my farmland bird feeding station for the summer and I am now slowly weening the birds off the food by making less frequent visits and putting less food down. Today I called to probably make one of, or the last visit until autumn and it was noticeable how few birds remained, just a handful of Tit species and just five Tree Sparrows.

Two Yellowhammers were singing from the hedgerows and in the woodland a 'Great Spot' was drumming, male and female Tawny Owls were calling and a Buzzard mewed. It seemed to be all song and calls this morning!

Whilst I was taking the guy ropes for my mist nets off at the feeding station a group of Stock Doves lifted from the stubble's and I was surprised to count 36 of them, which I think from memory is my largest count for the site.

It's a morning of nest box maintenance for me tomorrow making sure my Pied Flycatcher and Tree Sparrow boxes are all ship-shape and replacing any that need replacing. Pied Flycatchers, it won't be long!

A Little Light Sea Passage

I headed to the Point this morning and joined Ian for a shortish seawatch. We had full cloud cover with a 25-30 mph southwesterly wind. It wasn't exactly 'jumping', but it did have that 'first movement at sea for the spring' feel to it.

There was a nice flock of 100 Sanderlings on the shore with a single Knot keeping them company and the first Curlews were on the move with nine heading ENE across the Bay. Movement at sea included five Red-breasted Mergansers, 12 Kittiwakes, four Common Scoters, five Little Gulls and an adult Gannet. In addition to the movers were six Cormorants and ten Eiders.

 Sanderlings

Afterwards we headed to the Treatment Works to top up our empty feeders and we are certainly getting the impression that quite a lot of birds are using the feeding station, but we have yet to have a ringing session and are waiting for the first calm morning. A Buzzard, two Long-tailed Tits and a Song Thrush were noted as we topped the feeders up.

I've an office day tomorrow, so I might just nip out first thing for an hour or two.