Monday, October 18, 2021
Sometimes the Spring optimism is overtaken by the reality of a dull early March morning on the moss, where birds are hard to come by and visible migration is often less obvious than in the autumn. It does seem that birds moving north in spring stay with the coast more, plus of course there are a lot less birds in total than after a prolonged and successful breeding season.
That fact was brought home to me this morning when I had a text from the lads at Rossall to say vis was good and they had caught 15 birds at that point in time. My short text in response simply said “No vis - 4 goldf caught”. An hour later my total birds caught increased to 5 with a single unexciting Greenfinch added and not a lot of other stuff in the notebook to make the morning appear more thrilling. With nothing doing I decided to pack in sooner with five birds rather than later with the same handful.
The only visible migration I saw came in the form of 2 Meadow Pipits heading north east, followed an hour later by a loose assembly of 12 Fieldfares, chuckling loudly as they too flew directly north and east.
I tried to catch a few Yellowhammers, there were 8 or 10 about the spilt wheat plus two singing males further down the farm, but the birds weren’t interested in being caught today. The Linnets flock numbered 90+ today, and despite spending some time close to the nets they too were indifferent to sporting a shiny and new BTO ring for the season.
Other birds seen: 1 Kestrel, 4 Grey Partridge, 2 Great-spotted Woodpeckers, 4 Lapwing, 3 Reed Bunting. As I drove off the farm I saw 2 more Fieldfares, this time in the field where a party fed for a few days a week or two ago.
The morning didn’t improve when back at home I destroyed yet another vacuum flask by dropping the latest one on the hard-paved patio. How does that Howard Jones song go? - "You can walk my path, You can wear my shoes, But things can only get better”.