Monday 2 July 2007

Displaced Sand Martins

Heysham Obs
Wooden jetty/sea
The pair of Black Guillemot were showing well early morning at least. The only other sighting reported from there was a single Gannet!

Middleton IE
A single Common Sandpiper was the first of the 'autumn'. More unusual were at least 5 Sand Martin flying around the model boatpond with other hirundines/swifts. This is very early for a species which currently breeds nowhere near (see under Elsewhere for possible reasons).

Elsewhere
Virtual complete lack of reports on the local websites and nothing worth mentioning. The evening return journey up the Lune valley via a lot of standing water also saw the river rather too high for most Sand Martin burrows. THE crucial birder contacted was neither in, nor able to receive the answerphone message in time, and this cost 'everyone' another tick (yesterday) in the form of a not so moribund Yellow-nosed Albatross (the previous occasion was when we were doing survey work none to far from a Siberian Rubythroat in Sunderland, as described in an article by Brian Unwin). How about all birders changing their recorded message to include "If you are ringing about a rare bird, please contact RBA at xxx or whatever"?

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