Autumn migration 2012

[chris butterworth]

In counterpoint to Goosey's 'Spring migration' thread ( that's sooooooooooo last year / season ) I thought I'd start one for returning bird.

Marsh Harrier are back on the Dee, the annual gathering of terns is well under way with flocks of up to 800 Sandwich, 600+ Common and 70+ Little Terns both at West Kirby and Hoylake, as well as reasonable numbers of Arctics among them, Dunlin and Ringed Plover are getting commoner, the numbers of Black-tailed Godwit are rising, Willow Warblers are starting to move through with 'tweeting' birds all over the area. There are still a few Swift still around and the telephone wires are starting to fill up with Barn Swallows and House Martins ( plus we've already had our first American vagrant, Buff-breasted Sandpiper, at Frodsham. )

Chris

[chris butterworth]

24 Willow Warbler in the area around my house, on the Wirral, this morning. Swallows and House Martin are starting to 'fill up' the telephone wires but we've still got Swift around.

Chris

[goosey]

Originally Posted by chris butterworth

24 Willow Warbler in the area around my house, on the Wirral, this morning. Swallows and House Martin are starting to 'fill up' the telephone wires but we've still got Swift around.

Chris

Last Saturday, a few hours before we left Holland to come to The Lakes for our holiday the swifts were screeching though the sky, so it will be interesting to see if they are still there when we get back.

We were at a stables today and there were dozens of swallows still around, some still looking very young indeed.

Yesterday we were at RSPB Leighton moss, it was very quiet on the reed beds, but lots of waders could be seen from the hides over looking Morecambe Bay.

I have seen a few skeins of geese on the move this week - which sort I don't know.

[chris butterworth]

Going through a bit of a good spell here on the Wirral. Juvenile Cuckoo ( they seem to be 'commoner' over the last couple of years around here ) and a cracking Hobby hunting hirundines yesterday - plus another on Saturday on the SW Lancashire mosses. Marsh Harrier are still on the estuary, Greenshank and Spotted Redshank numbers seem to be increasing, along with Dunlin and Knot and there were an amazing 11 Black Tern off Hilbre Island yesterday. I know it's 'nothing to write home about' if you live in Holland - but here? Still a few Swift about and plenty of Barn Swallow and House Martin around with good numbers on passage over the islands. Willow Warbler seem to be 'wheeting' from all over the area and I woke to the first Robin of the Autumn singing in the garden on Saturday.

Originally Posted by goosey

I have seen a few skeins of geese on the move this week - which sort I don't know.

Hopefully they'll 'just' be Canadas - if they are Pinkfeet - it's later than I thought

Chris

[goosey]

Originally Posted by chris butterworth

Going through a bit of a good spell here on the Wirral. Juvenile Cuckoo ( they seem to be 'commoner' over the last couple of years around here ) and a cracking Hobby hunting hirundines yesterday - plus another on Saturday on the SW Lancashire mosses. Marsh Harrier are still on the estuary, Greenshank and Spotted Redshank numbers seem to be increasing, along with Dunlin and Knot and there were an amazing 11 Black Tern off Hilbre Island yesterday. I know it's 'nothing to write home about' if you live in Holland - but here?



Chris

I don't know about that Chris, everywhere can be exciting.I was at Leighton Moss last week and got awfully excited to see some Bar-tailed Godwits in there wonderful summer/breeding colours. I had seen them in Holland quite often in the spring and was gutted to miss the colourful birds on Ijmuiden beach when I went especially to see them day after day - I had to come to Morecambe bay to see them. (Hopefully there will be photos later next week and of everything else when I am back home)

[chris butterworth]

Barwit in breeding plumage are something special, aren't they. Did you get any Knot among them? Had a quick look at West Kirby shore, just after high tide, today ( missed the Black Tern - again ). c.700 Ringed Plover, 2500 Dunlin, 2000 Oystercatcher, 42 Curlew, 534 Sandwich Tern, 11 Arctic Tern, 9 Little Tern and about 9000 mixed Gulls, mainly Black-headed and Mew ( Common ) in the roost. We had reports of a high flying Honey-buzzard and Corn Crake at Red Rocks with a Balearic Shearwater off Hilbre I. yesterday. Keep the easterlies coming

Chris

[goosey]

Originally Posted by chris butterworth

Barwit in breeding plumage are something special, aren't they. Did you get any Knot among them?
Chris

I don't know my sea birds and waders as well as I should (there again this time last year I think I would have only been able to pick out a puffin and mature herring gull in a bird line up ). There were smaller waders there aswell but until I check out my photos properly when I get home I wouldn't like to say what I saw.

[chris butterworth]

Wader and Tern heaven today on the Wirral. Finally caught up with the Black Terns along with 500 Sandwich Tern, 120 Common Tern, 41 Arctic Tern and 74 Little Tern. The waders were 830 Ringed Plover, 4900 Dunlin ( most in breeding plumage ), 530 juvenile Sanderling, 2200 Oystercatcher, 1 Black-tailed Godwit, 8 Bar-tailed Godwit ( sadly not in breeding plumage) and 43 Grey Plover ( 12 immaculate breding plumage adults ). A quick seawatch turned up more Black Tern, 3 Arctic Skua, 27 Gannet and a single Great Crested Grebe. Added to that there were at least 5 Willow Warbler in my back garden at first light. Not a bad day!

Chris

[goosey]

Originally Posted by chris butterworth

Wader and Tern heaven today on the Wirral. Finally caught up with the Black Terns along with 500 Sandwich Tern, 120 Common Tern, 41 Arctic Tern and 74 Little Tern. The waders were 830 Ringed Plover, 4900 Dunlin ( most in breeding plumage ), 530 juvenile Sanderling, 2200 Oystercatcher, 1 Black-tailed Godwit, 8 Bar-tailed Godwit ( sadly not in breeding plumage) and 43 Grey Plover ( 12 immaculate breding plumage adults ). A quick seawatch turned up more Black Tern, 3 Arctic Skua, 27 Gannet and a single Great Crested Grebe. Added to that there were at least 5 Willow Warbler in my back garden at first light. Not a bad day!

Chris

What a haul , how on earth do you manage to count so many birds, and split species . I am really rubbish unless anything is under 30 other it's lots, loads or masses.

Just a quick mention about the Arctic skua's, a few days before I came to England, around the 1st-3rd August the first Artic skuas were being seen on the beach in Ijmuiden, which was a bit frustrating as I didn't get to check them out for myself.

[chris butterworth]

Masses of terns still around ( if anything, the numbers are going up ) plus first 2 Little Stints, a Curlew Sandpiper, breeding plumaged Barwit and yet another Black Tern today at Hoylake. Still got Willow Warbler passing through the area in 'reasonable' numbers as well.

Originally Posted by goosey

... how on earth do you manage to count so many birds,

Count the legs and divide by two

Chris

[chris butterworth]

200 Arctic Tern, 1000 Sandwich Tern and 1000 Common Tern yesterday on the beaches at West Kirby and Hoylake during the WEBs count. I, meanwhile was wandering around the fields getting drenched ( and a couple of nice Greenshank as well ).

Chris

[chris butterworth]

Things are picking up with 2 juvenile Ruff and the first Black-tailed Godwit of the Autumn ( albeit only 3 ) on the pond at the back of the house . Yet another morning with Willow Warbler 'wheeting' in the back garden ( 5 ). There must have been thousands passing through the area in the last week or so. No Swift for a couple of days, so they are probably gone, but still plenty of Barn Swallow and House Martin about, plus many on obvious passage. Still haven't picked up the Aquatic Warbler that has been at Red Rocks for a couple of days though .

Chris

[chris butterworth]

Another good hour or so at the 'pond at the back of the house'. Still 2 juv. Ruff, Blackwit up to 5 and the first real numbers of duck, with 24 Teal and 2 Shoveler ( all in eclipse plumage ). There were also 88 feral Greylags and 32 Canadas feeding among the horses. This is the first time I've recorded over 100 geese in the field, shame they aren't 'real' ones. It looks as though the Willow Warbler passage is almost over as I only counted 3 in the nearby scrubby stuff but hirundines are still powering through in good numbers.

Chris

[chris butterworth]

Boring day today . Just a couple of Raven over the house and a Curlew Sandpiper at Hoylake. Lets have some nice NW gales before the end of the month .

Chris

[goosey]

Originally Posted by goosey

I was at Leighton Moss last week and got awfully excited to see some Bar-tailed Godwits in there wonderful summer/breeding colours. I had seen them in Holland quite often in the spring and was gutted to miss the colourful birds on Ijmuiden beach when I went especially to see them day after day - I had to come to Morecambe bay to see them. (Hopefully there will be photos later next week and of everything else when I am back home)

Originally Posted by chris butterworth

Barwit in breeding plumage are something special, aren't they.

Chris

Here we are, I am really please to have seen these and got the photo's, real beauties!




I think I am a bit late looking at them now and they are actually changing their plumage again!

[Drosera]

At Lake Tåkern, Sweden. Migrating birds, resting and feeding - in this photo part of a flock of about 300, taken to the air for some reason. Note the swans in the background. Thousands of geese, cranes are also in the area of the lake.

[chris butterworth]

Originally Posted by Drosera

At Lake Tåkern, Sweden. Migrating birds, resting and feeding - in this photo part of a flock of about 300, taken to the air for some reason. Note the swans in the background. Thousands of geese, cranes are also in the area of the lake.

Nice. It must be getting near time to sneak off down to Falsterbo?

Had a cracking day at Burton, at the other end of the penisula from me, on Saturday and picked up my first 'Yank', a beautifully marked juvenile Pectoral Sandpiper. There were also Green Sandpiper, Spotted Redshank, lots of Black-tailed Godwit, half a dozen Ruff, 'lots' of Lapwing, and Snipe. A very distant female-type Garganey was the best duck and a juvenile Marsh Harrier from Norfolk gave stunning views. The most astonishing thing was the amount of dragonflies about. After a summer of seeing very few 10's of Brown Hawker, a few Four-spotted Chaser, a single Migrant Hawker and both Common and Ruddy Darter were brilliant. On Sunday I had to nip up to Maryport in Cumbria to help a mate bring his yacht back to Anglesey and we had c.180 Manx Shearwater, 1 European Storm-Petrel, 2 Great Skua plus Kittiwake and Fulmar just off the Wirral but the 11 Bottle-nosed Dolphin the were 'bow-riding' for about 10 minutes were the real highlight.

Chris

p.s. Although Pectoral Sandpiper are normally thought of as American birds there is a ditinct possibility they may be from the expanding Asian population ( or, as quite a few birders think, from an unknown Scaninavian breeding pop. Time to go scouring the far north Drosera? )

C

[goosey]

It looks like a Baird's Sandpiper (Calidris bairdii) is causing a bit of stir down the coast at Meijendel at the moment. As far as I can make out there is just the one and it is a juvenile. I have never heard of them before but apparantly they are very rare in the Netherlands.

[Drosera]

Originally Posted by chris butterworth

Nice. It must be getting near time to sneak off down to Falsterbo?


p.s. Although Pectoral Sandpiper are normally thought of as American birds there is a ditinct possibility they may be from the expanding Asian population ( or, as quite a few birders think, from an unknown Scaninavian breeding pop. Time to go scouring the far north Drosera? )

C

A couple of good suggestions there Chris!

[chris butterworth]

Originally Posted by goosey

It looks like a Baird's Sandpiper (Calidris bairdii) is causing a bit of stir down the coast at Meijendel at the moment. As far as I can make out there is just the one and it is a juvenile. I have never heard of them before but apparantly they are very rare in the Netherlands.

Bairds Sandpiper are American jobbies, they used to be 'regular' in Autumn in UK, back in the 70's and 80's. Most vagrants are juveniles ( a bit like human ones - no sense of direction ).

Chris

[goosey]

Cranes are on the move (as usual not over in my area) again over The Netherlands, coming from the NE heading SW. Not huge numbers as yet, the largest group today consisting of 58 birds.

[Drosera]

Originally Posted by goosey

Cranes are on the move (as usual not over in my area) again over The Netherlands, coming from the NE heading SW. Not huge numbers as yet, the largest group today consisting of 58 birds.

This is the traffic via Hornborgasjön.
http://www5.o.lst.se/projekt/hornborga/transtat.asp

[chris butterworth]

Originally Posted by Drosera

This is the traffic via Hornborgasjön.
http://www5.o.lst.se/projekt/hornborga/transtat.asp

Mmmmmmmmm, tasty. I should be able to top that when I go to Japan at the beginning of next year, with up to 200 Japanese ( Red - crowned ) on Hokkaido and, at Arisake on Kyushu, 2500 White-naped, 10,000 Hooded, a couple of Sandhill and, possibly, a Common and Siberian in among them. All that aside, the migration at Hornborgasjon is unbelievable. The sight, and, particularly, the sound of thousands of Crane is one of the great wildlife spectacles in the world.

Chris

[goosey]

Went to the beach today and saw my first Stercorarius longicaudus - Long-tailed Skua. I have seen Arctic skua's before but this was a first for me so I was pleased.

Piccie is rubbish though, how annoying as my other bird images from today were much better

[goosey]

After missing all the breeding Guillemots at St Bees in Cumbria when were were over in August, at last I saw a guillemot (Uria aalge) today from the Zuidpier. It was only one and was 4th time lucky at that, I knew they were here but just had to find my first of the year.
Such gorgeous little birds and not something we see much of .