Mostly Mipits

Saturday 29th March, and as I drove along Head Dyke Lane there was a Barn Owl hunting the roadside, the owl disappearing over farm buildings as mine and another car approached with headlights still burning in the half light of dawn.

Barn Owl

On arrival at Fluke Hall the morning’s weather wasn’t quite as hoped for and certainly not as good as the BBC led us to believe on Friday evening. There was a strong easterly from the off and there would be no sign of the sun until afternoon. In the interim I spent a useful three hours or more in listening for, watching and counting migrating Meadow Pipits while I waited in vain for Wheatears to spend time at their usual and  regular catching location. 

There’d been a large arrival of many dozens Wheatears along the Fylde coast on Friday so I hoped some might linger overnight. A look along the rocky outcrops of the sea wall at Fluke Hall gave a nil return of Wheatears however there was an immediate, obvious and respectable movement of Meadow Pipits taking place. 

Parties of pipits were arriving from the west and south west and then continuing on the same flight path by following the sea wall in an easterly direction, groups of birds numbering from less than ten or up to thirty individuals, not in droves, just very regular clusters.

Historically the last few days of March is the classic time to witness the visible migration of the Meadow Pipit, an abundant and widespread pipit of Northern Europe, north-western Asia and Russia, south east Greenland and the whole of Iceland. Because virtually the entire northern population winters south of the UK, huge numbers pass through our islands in both Autumn and Spring. 

Meadow Pipit

I took a look around Fluke Hall hoping for a Ring Ouzel but found only their cousins the Blackbirds plus a singing Chiffchaff, so decided to do the long walk of Lane Ends to Pilling Water and Fluke hall again and even then back to Lane Ends. A good long walk should produce something I reasoned. 

Lane Ends held 2 Chiffchaff again, a strong singer and a silent searcher this time; let’s hope they remain to nest. Two Jays in the plantation with 2 Little Grebe, 4 Tufted Duck and 5 Little Egret on and around the pools.“Mipits” were on the move here too, arriving from the west and south west, many flying low across the marsh, others diverting up to overfly the trees, all the time a constant movement east towards Cockerham and beyond. 

As the pipits flew overhead the Carrion Crows pointed me in the direction of a Raven again; two in fact, the crows chasing the intruders off and out towards the tide where the two giant crows settled on the edge of the green marsh. 

I couldn’t find any Wheatears in a couple of miles or more, not until that is I returned to Lane Ends. Here a loose party of eight spread along the base of the sea wall had obviously arrived very recently and already on their way north, flying out towards the tide some 220 yards away. Just like the pipits, the chats seemed in a hurry to arrive somewhere other than my catching spot hundreds of yards away.

Northern Wheatear

Still the pipits flew overhead or crossed the marsh left to right, into the strong easterly towards the hills and north. Finally I tallied up as best I could and realised a count of 550+ Meadow Pipits. 

It had been a busy and interesting session with a distinct lack of “exciting” species, just a birder’s morning. 

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Linking today to Anni's Birding Blog .