Chilly vis migging

The Safari went out 'vis migging' a little later than we wanted but met up with JS who'd been there a few minutes but not had a great deal to report. It seemed the migration floodgates hadn't yet been opened. Mist had settled over the lower parts of the Pond Trail.

This is the view from our vis migging spot, the highest point for a fair way arounds and not actually that high it's an old but still in use railway bridge. It has a good all round field of view apart from behind (south) which isn't really nearly necessary when all our attention is focused to the north, this is what we're looking at northwards. Early on we could see the mountains of the Lake District but in this pic a bank of low fog had rolled in in the middle distance starting around the legs of the very last pylon.

The migrants started to come through in waves, mostly Meadow Pipits as usual but including our first Redwings of the year. All was going well until the field's residents come to say hello and rudely interrupted us.

One of them took a fancy to our chair but couldn't really get the hang of using it in the correct manner.

The other tried to eat  it and then after deciding it wasn't edible neatly folded it up very carefully and let it fall to over then proceeded to trample on it in a bit of a paddy fit!

Quite a good looking chap all the same.

We got

Redwing 14

Skylark 4

Meadow Pipit 164

Reed Bunting 1

Chaffinch 31

Goldfinch 8 + c50 in the local flock

House Martin 2

Swallow 9

Pied Wagtail 23

Woodpigeon 28

Starling 13

Jackdaw 336

Pink Footed Goose 340

Snipe 1

Sparrowhawk 1 - skimming the well nibbled grass blades hunting the local Goldfinches

Kestrel 1

Goldcrest 1 - on the walk back to the Land Rover

and the strong pong of a Fox in the undergrowth.

Back at Base Camp after a fair sized bacon butty we had a few minutes in the garden. Getting a Chiffchaff, a Skylark - the first over the garden this year - a few Meadow Pipits. The gulls found us a Buzzard and in the afternoon what was probably a second Chiffchaff was heard in the back gardens of the houses on other side of the street.

In the evening we heard the persistent sharp 'hweet' coming from the big Sycamore at the end of the garden. With all the Yellow Browed Warblers around at the moment we had to check - yes it looked have a reasonable eyestripe at certain angles, yes it had a very white underbelly/vent area but no we didn't see any wing bars and no the voice wasn't right either so 'just' a normal Chiffchaff - it was flipping good at hiding behind leaves.

Where to next? Back to Patch 2 in the morning, Harbour Porpoises seen off the Prom today and the wind is going to be offshore so the sea should be pretty flat calm.

In the meantime let us know who got in the way in your outback.