Sunday, September 11, 2011

Pre-Hurricane Migration.

View south from stubble field to the village. Copse on the left and Back Hedge on the right.

The coast path viewing south from Cullernose.

Up and out by 7am. After checking the moths, I popped to the coast path to see if I could get a Black Tern for the patch list. With the milky back light there was little chance of this, but I gave it an hour anyway.

I had -

Arctic Skua 6 S including some very close in.
Bonxie 1 N
Arctic Tern 5 S but there were loads of terns offshore too far to id in the poor light.
Sandwich tern 4 S
Wigeon 28 S
Teal 6 S
Shag 3 S
Knot 2 S
Red throated Diver 1 adult still in summer plumage on the sea close in.
Further offshore there were loads of Gannets in feeding frenzies, plus a few Fulmars.

While seawatching it was clear that there was some viz-migging going on along the coast. The next hour or so was spent wandering the back field at home up to Cullernose and back counting the birds moving south. The strong SSW breeze was keeping them low and near the coast, but birds were moving on a broad front so these are absolute minimal counts.

Swallow 180+ S
House Martin 55+ S
Sand Martin 1 S
Swift 1 S mobbed by Swallows then it or another over the Village later on.
Meadow Pipit 200+ S
Skylark 4 S
Goldfinch 61 S
Linnet 34 S
Siskin 19 S
Redpoll 7 S
Pied Wagtail 1 S
Grey Wagtail 4 S

A male Blackcap was still in the elders in the garden and 4+ Bullfinch were in Village Wood, and thats about it really. No Hoopoes here I'm afraid ( Bamburgh 7.55am)...

2 comments:

Ipin said...

Very similar species to what I saw at Druridge, apart from the swift.

Alan Pavey said...

That sounded like a good session, a nice list of birds there.