Its an East Wind

With persistant drizzle and a sneaky wind, ringing was a non starter this morning, so after a bit of a lie in it was off to South Gare for Kes and me to see if the easterly had delivered, and wow it delivered the whole place was ticking, tweeting and chacking. The main species involved were Robin, Goldcrest and Redwing with a supporting cast of Siskins, Song Thrush, Brambling and Chiffchaff there was also a few Blackcaps and several Dunnocks, Reed Buntings and Wheatears. A little spice was added by a Great Grey Shrike that was doing the rounds and terrorising any small bird it clapped eyes on, there was also a juv Reb-breasted Flycatcher and a Black Redstart on show. Overhead there was an almost constant stream of Redwings as flocks of upto a hundered came in off the sea and alighted in the bushes..


Below is a selection of the birds that were on show............

Goldcrest

Red Breasted Flycatcher



Great Grey Shrike



Robin

Redwing

Ticker on the Brink

With  Scaup finding its way onto Tickers list this week he now stands on the brink of the magic 200. As an aside our birding buddy "Dickie" Nyburg arrived on Utsira a day late and dipped on the Chestnut Bunting.

Evening Stroll

The nice weather prompted a walk round the patch this evening. There was some evidence of a few grounded migrants with 11 Song Thrushes, five Chiffchaffs and eight Goldcrests seen. Around the feeders there was an impressive number of Goldfinch with at least 90 in the bushes near feeder 1. Overhead there were a couple of House Martins and a single Swallow. Noticing some damp in the lab I looked on the roof and found the offending hole in the felt. Fortunately I had a tin of sealant which I applied liberally to the said hole. Having seen the forcast for tomorrow I am pleased I did as another deluge is predicted.

Autumn Jewels

After the deluge of biblical proportions yesterday it was a very plesant surprise to wake this morning and find the Tri and her forcasting buddies finally got it right. A still morning with no rain. So it was action stations at our ringing site with three of us erected three nets to see what was about.

Fifty six new birds and five retraps were captured in a little over three hours mainly Goldfinch (33) but also included our first Goldcrest of the autumn and a brace of Blackcaps and a single Chiffchaff. Goldcrest always means the start of autumn for me as these "Woodcock pilots" start to filter onto our shores from the soon to be frozen north where they are affectionately called "Spruce Louse"


Chiffchaff



Autumn Jewels in cobweb



The always sad looking Spruce Louse

There was quite a few birds about with a trickle of Vis.Mig also with 19 Swallows, 27 Meadow Pipits (s) and about 30 Skylarks (w), nine Song Thrushes also dropped in from the east and after a short while, I guess to reorientate spiralled up and headed off west. A Buzzard also showed well and about 1000 Lapwings were in the fields near WHP. In the bushes there was seven Chiffchaffs, three Blackcaps and about a dozen Goldcrests.

Anglo Norsk scores on the doors

As we enter thr last and sometimes most rewarding last quarter I am still maintaining my lead with 241 but Ticker is putting up a very spirited performance and may well crack the magic 200 for Norway with his current score been 198.

Bishop Monkton "Brucie Bonus"

I felt like some fresh air this afternoon after spending most of last night puking, so feeling a lot better and after much prompting from Kes we went for a walk round our patch at Bishop Monkton. On the way into the village where Mr Winkups boys were busy ploughing and sowing there was an amazing gathering of Common Gulls with 2352 counted along with 17 Lesser Black-backed and 9 Herring Gulls. There was also 29 Lapwing here but despite a good scan there was no Wheatear.

Onto Wetherhills Pond where there was a sizable flock of Lapwings 1057 counted, mixed in with these were two Golden Plovers and the bonus of a Dotterel which is the second record for the area and a very nice bird, alas with no telescopic lense there is no picture. In the afternoon sunshine it was easy to see why the old name for Lapwing was Green Plover, they looked magnificent.

Holidays Over

Well thats me back from my autumn migration watch in Norway. Whilst away I have recieved notification that my camera and lense will be replaced so I hope to be able to bring you some more enlightening illustrations soon. Main highlight was a Lesser White-fronted Goose that appeared to a luck few (me been one) which was not only a Norwegian tick but a lifer to boot. Whoopie, I also got three more Norsk ticks Water Rail, Pomerine Skua and Black-tailed Godwit.

I will bring more news when I get my notebook sorted and the pictures sorted.