There aren’t many new pictures on offer with this post but there’s a good list of birds following an afternoon out Pilling way. Yes, the wind and rain finally gave way to a half-decent few hours of bright weather for a circuit of Lane Ends/Pilling Water.
Less Pink-footed Goose in evidence than of recent days with a count of just over 2100, but the birds were reluctant to fly into the maize and wheat fields due to the steady stream of human activity, me included, along the sea wall. I had a good count of Teal and Pintail today with 750 and 110 respectively, together with just 90 Wigeon, although in most years the Wigeon do tend to appear in higher numbers during the depths of winter.
Shelduck numbers may be building after a count of 60+ today as birds return from their moult migration. Many UK and Irish Shelduck fly east to the Helgoland Bight in the Waddensea, an intertidal zone in the south eastern part of the North Sea, where they join birds from Scandinavia and the Baltic, and there complete their moult before returning to the UK and form the large winter concentrations we expect.
Shelduck
Two Peregrines were active today, both out on the marsh and over Hi-Fly fields, one in particular actively hunting any Red-legged Partridge foolish enough to take to the air, and while I didn’t see the raptor catch a partridge, it came very close. Peregrine was the only raptor seen, with seemingly the recent Buzzards and Marsh Harriers having moved elsewhere. An expected count of 7 Little Egret and 2 Grey Heron.
Peregrine
Passerines etc: 120+ Swallow in the area but none specifically engaged in visible migration, although it was afternoon time. Also, 5 Skylark, 8 Meadow Pipit, 15 Goldfinch, 20 Linnet, 1 Pied Wagtail and 2 Wheatear.
Wheatear
The BBC say the wind is dropping overnight with probably a morning frost after a clear night. So there’s signs of a ringing session tomorrow if the early morning alarm call does the trick. If so, log in tomorrow for more news and pictures on Another Bird Blog.
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