Tuesday 26 September 2017

A good migration day for common birds!

Despite very good coverage of the nooks and crannies to the south of Ocean Edge, the feeling was that we missed something of interest in and around the power stations area.  Key sites were not walked over and a lot of reliance was placed on mist nets.  There was a sizeable earlyish morning fall of Chiffchaff and Goldcrests which appeared in the office nets between about 0740 and 0810, but thereafter very little was about as the original birds seemed to race inland

There was also no time to do any optics-based vis mig eg scanning for more distant Meadow Pipits (or "Meadow Pipits"!), so the figures refer to a fairly narrow corridor within audible range over Heysham NR office.  Some interesting vis mig today, including 'definite' Magpie and Great-spotted Woodpecker and a fair number of Coal Tit

Vis mig over Heysham office mainly 0800-1100
Mistle Thrush - 10+2 S
Jackdaw - 26 S
Rook - 4 S
Carrion Crow - 9 S
Magpie - 2+2 high and purposefully south way above pylon height
Great-spotted Woodpecker - 1 in-off on NW to SE heading - the highest flier I've ever seen here!
Chaffinch - 34 S
Meadow Pipit - 534 SE
Grey Wagtail - 7 SE and probably a different 7 over Middleton (5 ringed)
alba Wagtail - 77 SE
Linnet - 40 SE (inc. silent flock of 27)
Siskin - 2
Skylark - 25 SE
Coal Tit - 41 S in 9 groups
Swallow - 47 SE - all from 1000 onwards - many more along the coast (see Sunderland vis data on Dan's site)
Goldfinch - not possible to document but not many seemingly on vis
Redpoll - 1 SE
Common Buzzard - 2 SE
Kestrel - 2+1 S
Sparrowhawk - 2 S
Dunnock - 2 S
Reed Bunting - 1 SE

Miscellany
Kingfisher - one flew past HNR office
Med Gull - 10 (1 1CY, 2 2CY, 7 Ad)
Little Gull - usual ad

Grounded
Wheatear - 5
Chiffchaff - minimum of 35
Goldcrest - minimum of 35
Blackcap - just ONE!

Ringing
Chiffchaff (20), Goldcrest (18), Robin (3), Grey Wagtail (5), alba Wagtail (4), Blackcap (1), Dunnock (1) and one or two tits

Heysham NR insects
Red Admiral - 7
Migrant Hawker - 3
Large White - 1 male
Speckled Wood - 1