Backlog of Migrants

Since my previous post, there has been a bit of a birding and weather interlude.

On 11th October the wind briefly veered to the SSE with a gentle F3, with over cast sky and some drizzle patches. Cue migrants! In the dark as I took Peggy for her walk at 06.30, the sky was ringing to the sound of thrushes arriving from the east. Many hundreds of Redwing calls indicated the unseen birds arriving in big numbers in the darkness, odd Fieldfare, Song Thrush and Blackbird puntuated the sound. A Snipe 'scraped' away out of a coast field whilst bramblings squeaked overhead.

As daylight came, the birds continued on a westward passage and the air was quiet again. A lone Noctule Bat following behind the thrushes was my most unusual sighting.

Saturday 13th continued with a mod SSE with rain all morning. 2 Fieldfares , 6 Redwings, 4+ Bramblings, 2 Blackcap and a Chiffchaff were grounded in the village. Despite keeping a cocked ear, I had neither sight nor sound of the expected Yellow browed Warbler on the patch.

At lunchtime a short visit to Warkworth Beach Car  Park finally added Yellow browed Warbler to the 2018 list with a Ring Ouzel chakkering nearby for good measure.

On Sunday 14th I met with John and we headed for Boulmer to look for further arrivals.

A good wander around Seaton Point and the Village had -

Chiffchaff 2+
Yellow browed Warbler 2
Reed Bunting 4
Swallow 10 S
House Martin 1 S
Pintail 1 W
Black throated Diver 1 N
Golden Plover 600+
Goldcrest 2+
Purple Sandpiper 1
Grey Plover 3+
Bar taailed Godwit 4+
Ringed Plover 13
Dunlin 100+
Knot 1
Sandwich Tern 1 S
Red throated Diver 4 N 4S

From Boulmer we went to check Warkworth again, this time finding not one but 3+ Yellow browed Warblers, the Ring Ouzel was still here, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 2 Blackcap, 3 Chiffchaff and 22 Grey Partridge ( they weren't migrants).

With 5 YBW found before lunch there was surely one on my Howick patch?
Nope not a sniff. Just a passage of 28 Skylarks S 2 Bramblings and a Chiffchaff could be found.

Tuesday 16th also had a hint of SE and with it 480 Redwings flew over our village before 08.30am.

That seemed to be the end of migrant producing weather for a while, but as they say 'The big one travels alone....'