Friday 14 October 2011

Different conditions make vis migging tricky

The Safari was up n at em shortly after 08.00 this morning. From the off we noted more east in the wind and it was a tad stonger than yesterday. This had the effect of changing the flight-lines of the passage and many birds were either too distant or too high to be heard above the noise of the rush hour traffic. We suspect that many will have been Meadow Pipits.

Anyhow, back to last night; whilst waiting for tea to finish cooking we had five minutes outside and heard a Blackbird and then a single Redwing going over, if we'd have been able to take Frank out later we'd no doubt have heard plenty more. In the distance, somewhere towards the school, a Grey Plover was heard.
Nice and mild last night too so it could well have been a good night for moths but no chance of us getting the mothy out

This morning we watched on and off until 11.00, more on than off!
Jackdaw - 2 SW - first in the notebook again!
Un ID - 20 all heading between S & W
Pied Wagtail - 7 all S except one NE - where was that one going?
Meadow Pipit - 10 in dribs n drabs
Sparrowhawk - 1m, it or another male seen later - see below
Chaffinch - 2 + 2 S
Carrion Crow - 3 + 1 + 1 all S
Goldfinch - 2 SE - local birds?
Garden birds:-
3 Blue Tits and 2 Great Tits visited the feeder together
One of the Mistle Thrushes was on the telly aerial again, left to the E.

Blackbird - 3 dropped into next door's garden from high to the north - a little later two and (probably) a second Mistle Thrush were flushed from there by what was possibly another male Sparrowhawk as this was seen off by a Magpie minutes later.
Female Greenfinch on the feeder + 2 S (locals?)
Dunnock - just one seen at the bottom of the garden today.

Our resident juvenile Herring Gull stopped by to see if any scram was on the garage roof - nowt for him today.
The Grey Squirrel reappeared briefly

With thicker cloud and a cooler gustier wind we retired indoors before lunchtime but to be fair the trickle had dwindled to a mere dribble so we doubt if we missed much. Every so often we had a couple of minutes outside but didn't manage to sully the page with any new records. No insects today, other than a few Wasps, suggests its deffo a degree or two cooler than yesterday.
Where to next? Weekend so who knows...doubt if we'll get any further than the garden though.
In the meantime let us know what's dribbling in your outback.

3 comments:

Lancashire and Lakeland Outback Adventure Wildlife Safaris said...

Less than 1/2 an hour after pressing the 'Publish' button a Swallow tazzed over the garden

Cheers
D

Aussie Glen said...

up at 8.00am thats a whole morning sleep in.You getting "soft" now that you are in plasterer?

Lancashire and Lakeland Outback Adventure Wildlife Safaris said...

Doesn't get light til about 7.30 now AG...and Frank needs his brekkie!!!

Cheers
D