Back to today, and back down to earth, two afternoon visits to Migrant Alley were made, the earlier of the visits from 13:00 to 14:30hrs. The only birds of any note were a SPARROWHAWK upsetting the local HOUSE MARTINS, SWALLOWS, and PIED WAGTAILS, these then all banded together and pestered the hawk until it got fed up and left. The other bird of note was a HOBBY that sped low over the Greenhouse Complex, great to see.
The latter visit from 16:00 to 18:00 did not fare any better, just the Sparrowhawk, still trying to have a hirundine tea! Maybe I should have stayed longer, as yesterday evenings migrants species weren't seen until 19:30, but I had things to do at home.
Update on the months total ( especially for Monika !) The migrant Yellow wagtails brings the total for August to 58, thats still 12 behind last years best august total, however, as of today i'm off for a week, so i'll have plenty of full visits to my patch, i've only had one full walk round so far this month and the likes of Grey Heron, Lesser Whitethroat have yet to be found!
Here's some rather poor photo's of last nights migrants, it was getting dark!
Above: Yellow Wagtail, not very yellow, as it's an immature bird, hatched this spring. Below, is the Wheatear - I love 'em!
Below is the Common Whitethroat, looking rather incongruous sitting on a man made object, usually they are glimpsed among a dense hedge!
Below: One of the mixed geese flocks that go over around 20:00, they all go NW, then just as its dark come back SE again, I counted at least 300.
9 comments:
Hi Warren
Only 30 days until we see skeins of Pink Feet comin in from Iceland just like that. As for Yellow Wags almost lost as a breeding species from the whole of Lancashire now, even though we got some great reserves that ought to suit them down to th ground, what a shame lovely birds.
You seen any sign of the ladybird invasion that seems to be all over the media at the moment? Nothing unusual up this way yet.
Cheers
Dave
Hello dave,
There's lots of ''habitat'' for yellow wags around - but it's Breeding habitat thats needed.
As for ladybirds, well there were rather a lot around during june, not so many now though.
It was well worth the evening visit yesterday, I haven't seen a Yellow Wagtail for years, they never used to be so unusual. As for your mention of the 'glorious' 12th on your previous post, glorious my.....well, anything rude you can think of!! The birds probably are hiding, they've probably got more intelligence than their persecutors!
I didn't think the photos were poor at all, great stuff.
Thanks Warren! That's impressive. I like to keep tabs on your counts because I'm continually amazed by the number of species you spot on your patch.
...glad you made it back for the evening walk! Isn't that always the way. I love it when huge flocks of geese fly over. 300+ geese must have been a wonderful sight--and I bet there was a whole lot of honking going on!
Nice one with the Yellow Wag, Warren. A species i`ve missed out on this year. There`s still time, though.
Warren ,
Nice one with the Yellow Wagtails .
That Common Whitethroat seems to be saying 'It's him with the camera again' .
Another week off , you seem to have more holidays than MPs.
I agree on the Wheatears, Warren. One often accompanies me on Culver Down, flitting from post to post of the fence.
Yes, evening is often the best time - not least because everyone else is indoors.
Once again an interesting post with nice photos. You did quite well considering the fading light.
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