Thursday, 25th October 2012

Easterly winds all week finally turned up some good birds today, most notably a Ring Ouzel and a Black Redstart.

Offshore

7 Wigeon west, 6 Mallards west, 40 Common Scoters west, 3 Red-breasted Mergansers west, 3 Red-throated Divers west, 2 Great Crested Grebes, 1 Guillemot east and 3 Auk sp. east.

Visible Migration 

5 Whooper Swans south, 845 Pink-footed Geese south, 4 Barnacle Geese south, 1 Merlin in off, 155 Redwings south-east, 61 Fieldfares south-east, 6 Mistle Thrush east, 16 Skylarks south, 81 Starlings south, 2 Grey Wagtails south, 8 Alba Wagtails south, 1 Rock Pipit west, 63 Meadow Pipits south,149 Chaffinch south-east, 33 Greenfinch south-east, 16 Bramblings south-east, 2 Linnets south, 14 Goldfinch south-east and 1 Reed Bunting east.

Grounded Migrants 

1 Ring Ouzel - on site for 10 minutes at dawn before disappearing south, 1 Black Redstart - fem/imm type by sea wall mid afternoon, 1 Wheatear, 6 Robins, 5 Wrens, 1 Chiffchaff, 5 Goldcrests, 6 Song Thrushes and 22 Blackbirds.

Others

600 Pink-footed Geese, 240 Wigeon, 3 Shovelers, 600 Lapwings, 12 Golden Plovers, 33 Black-tailed Godwits, 1 Med. Gull, 1 Buzzard, 1 Peregrine, 1 Barn Owl and 2 Kingfishers.

Ringing

2 Blackbirds, 1 Redwing, 2 Great Tits and 13 Greenfinch - including a control from Heysham Bird Observatory.