We knew it couldn’t last. Our two week heatwave of global warming just couldn't make the grade and turned out to be the familiar autumn of wind, rain, fallen apples and russet leaves. 

Autumn apples

 

My notebook remained pretty much empty until Thursday of this week with a journey to Oakenclough, a few miles from Garstang Town, west of the Pennines. Our location is in sight & sound of the North to South M6 Motorway that runs from Scotland to Middle England. From our vantage point and on clear mornings we can see down to Morecambe Bay, the largest expanse of intertidal mudflats and treacherous sand in the United Kingdom. The whole area covers a total of 120 square miles. 

Morecambe Bay - Wiki

 

Ringing site location

We are sure that the geographical location, the proximity of the brightly lit motorway plus the north to south axis of the Pennines helps us to catch migratory birds in autumn and spring. This obvious and sometimes visible bird migration doesn’t always happen and is dependent upon weather conditions, but when it does we know within an hour of our arrival on site. 

Autumn starts are later now at 0630 but soon to shift back for the darker morns ahead. I met up with Andy, Bryan and Will to zero wind and greyish skies, a near prefect morning for ringing we thought.

Nothing much happened except for visible migration of more than 120 Swallows heading west in small groups together with several House Martins and a single Sand Martin. Invisible migration/new arrivals consisted of just 11 captures - 3 Blackcap, 2 Willow Warbler, 2 Meadow Pipit, 2 Goldfinch, 1 Goldcrest and 1 Chaffinch.

Blackcaps have been hard to come by this year until the catch today of two males and one indeterminate, the cap still brown but potentially yet to moult to the black of a male.

Blackcap

Meadow Pipit

       

Goldfinch

Juvenile Goldfinches cannot be sexed with any accuracy until they acquire their adult colours. However, the size of the bill on the above example suggests it is a male.  

There was a roving flock of Goldfinches this morning with approximately 80-100 in the area of the site. With luck we might have caught more but had to settle for the two juveniles. 

Goldcrest

The weather is set fair for the next few days and maybe into next week. I'm setting the alarm clock for Friday morning and a trip to the very edge of Morecambe Bay. I'm sure we can catch more birds next time. Now where have I heard that before?