Monday 22 September 2014

A Bit Aukward Down Aukliffe




Hello. Dan here.

Every year we have a few Guillemots that tire of the monotony of the Irish Sea and drift up the Lune estuary on the rising tide to gaze upon our beautiful parish.

So I was blasé when I saw an auk doing the same today. Reviewing shots it looks like I fumbled a first-winter Razorbill-- which is a patch first.

Please accept my dodgy photo as penance for not being at all razor-sharp.

Aside from this rather passive auk movement, there was a little bit of visible migration this morning with an eastbound Rock Pipit the pick of the lot, and a creditable 10 Grey Wagtails. A similar number of alba wags went SE as did 5 Skylarks. Meadow Pipit vis. scarcely registered, with a mere 30 or 40.

More dramatic were the first skeins of Pink-footed Goose, with 50+20 N and 26 south, and the attractive circumzenithal arc pictured above.

Songbirds on the deck included 2 Stonechats, 5 Song Thrushes, 17 Chiffchaffs and 8 Goldcrests.

Wader interest included a Greenshank, a late-ish Common Sandpiper, 48 Golden Plovers and a Green Sandpiper.


DH.

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