Dan here with a mid-season list of which summer migrants we've recorded in the parish so far. In order of appearance:
March
11th Chiffchaff
19th Little Ringed Plover
25th Blackcap
27th Osprey
29th Willow Warbler
30th Wheatear
31st Sand Martin
April
3rd Lesser Whitethroat
4th Ring Ouzel
15th Swallow
15th White Wagtail
15th Tree Pipit
15th Yellow Wagtail
16th Whitethroat
16th Common Sandpiper
17th Sedge Warbler
17th House Martin
22nd Whimbrel
24th Whinchat
24th Redstart
25th Cuckoo
May
5th Swift
5th Arctic Tern
8th Woodchat Shrike
8th Garden Warbler
For the sake of simplicity, purity and argument I've only included classic summer migrants and not proto-, partial-, hemi- and demi-migrants such as Stonechat and Greenshank...
Ring Ouzel, Cuckoo and even Yellow Wagtail are not always annual at Aldcliffe so we've been lucky with those, but we've usually recorded Grasshopper Warbler & Garden Warbler by now--particularly in a spring with plentiful observer coverage like this one.
Hopefully there are plenty more spring additions to come and perhaps I'll complete the round-up towards the end of June.
DH.
Welcome to Aldcliffe & Freeman's Wood, Lancaster - an area of the Lune Estuary in Morecambe Bay, North Lancs.
Wednesday, 7 May 2014
Tuesday, 6 May 2014
Noc-tern-al
Dan here.
There was quite a bit of bird action in the NW of the patch at dusk, and luckily I was there to see it.
At least twenty Swifts and forty Swallows were feeding over Freeman's Wood after sunset, and the rustling sound of Sand Martins was heard over Freeman's Pools.
A male Wheatear (pictured below) was feeding at Marsh Point, as were two Common Sandpipers. The Arctic Tern pictured above flew downstream here.
Evening birdsong included Blackcaps, Willow Warblers, Chiffchaffs and Whitethroats-- but no Sedge or Grasshopper Warblers were heard.
DH.
Monday, 5 May 2014
Just a Swift One
Hello. Dan once more.
I'm sure most readers of this blog will have seen Swifts somewhere or other in the last few days, and I had my first few over the patch this evening. Three worked slowly (by swift standards) east as I headed out to Stodday picnic site to scan for ibises in flight.
No repeat of the other night, but as I waited in the dampening gloom a year-tick Arctic Tern lazily winged its way downstream and had a butchers at Colloway Marsh, site of a tern colony in decades past.
The estuary resounded with the cuddly cooings of Eiders, with at least four drakes and two ducks noted.
DH.
I'm sure most readers of this blog will have seen Swifts somewhere or other in the last few days, and I had my first few over the patch this evening. Three worked slowly (by swift standards) east as I headed out to Stodday picnic site to scan for ibises in flight.
No repeat of the other night, but as I waited in the dampening gloom a year-tick Arctic Tern lazily winged its way downstream and had a butchers at Colloway Marsh, site of a tern colony in decades past.
The estuary resounded with the cuddly cooings of Eiders, with at least four drakes and two ducks noted.
DH.
Sunday, 4 May 2014
7 & 7 is?
Dan here.
Everyone was expecting more rain than materialised today-- I was out dead early in the drizzle thinking it a lull in heavier precipitation, but the day was mostly dry.
My plan was to quickly spot a Swift circling around in the murk (had a few over town two days ago) go home, type a blog entitled 'Just a Swift One' and go back to bed. But the Swift never showed, the weather dried out and I searched for migrants for a couple hours more.
The main feature was Wheatears. First thing a party of four was mingling with similarly-sized Lapwing chicks on the maize fields, with a further six being chased around by doggies on the marsh.
When I checked the flood an hour later (M & F Little Ringed Plover) ten Wheatears were frolicking with lambs at the waters edge. Surely not the two flocks consolidated? The marsh birds were gone.. I grabbed my notebook to up my morning tally to fourteen. Scrub that-- maize birds no longer present.. Krazy times.
That's about all for today-- save to mention two Sedge Warblers singing and also a Stock Dove at Freeman's Pools-- more mathematical mysteries soon.
DH.
Everyone was expecting more rain than materialised today-- I was out dead early in the drizzle thinking it a lull in heavier precipitation, but the day was mostly dry.
My plan was to quickly spot a Swift circling around in the murk (had a few over town two days ago) go home, type a blog entitled 'Just a Swift One' and go back to bed. But the Swift never showed, the weather dried out and I searched for migrants for a couple hours more.
The main feature was Wheatears. First thing a party of four was mingling with similarly-sized Lapwing chicks on the maize fields, with a further six being chased around by doggies on the marsh.
When I checked the flood an hour later (M & F Little Ringed Plover) ten Wheatears were frolicking with lambs at the waters edge. Surely not the two flocks consolidated? The marsh birds were gone.. I grabbed my notebook to up my morning tally to fourteen. Scrub that-- maize birds no longer present.. Krazy times.
That's about all for today-- save to mention two Sedge Warblers singing and also a Stock Dove at Freeman's Pools-- more mathematical mysteries soon.
DH.
Thursday, 1 May 2014
Early 'Start
Dan here. Happy May to you all.
A quick look out of the window at half five revealed the kind of damp and miserable conditions I should be out in.
I soon found that the patch was hardly Fallcliffe, but then again it wasn't eff-Allcliffe either.
A lovely (is there any other kind?) adult male Redstart was singing in the rain in a sycamore at the foot of Aldcliffe Hall Lane, and the Willow Warbler singing feebly by the walled meadow smelled new.
A new Sedge Warbler was chattering a few hundred yards to the south (although any of its kin at Freeman's Pools were silent) so signs of mid-spring passage migration seemed to aided rather than hampered by the early drizzle.
The only Wheatear I could find was a male, and not the ten hands at the shoulder 'definite Greenland' that everyone's on about these days, even though it was standing up straight (probably to have a peer at me)...
A Whimbrel was quietly feeding by cadaver corner, and a scan of the Lune estuary west marshes revealed precisely no ibises, and an impressive fifteen Eider.
The Long-tailed Tit nest I've had half an eye on by the sewage works is still active, as is a nest-building Chiffchaff.
My snap below is dedicated to all the local dog-walkers who see me scanning Freeman's Pools and ask me if I'm looking for deer (no mate, I'm grilling the habbo for an overshooting Sylvia!)...enjoy!
DH.
A quick look out of the window at half five revealed the kind of damp and miserable conditions I should be out in.
I soon found that the patch was hardly Fallcliffe, but then again it wasn't eff-Allcliffe either.
A lovely (is there any other kind?) adult male Redstart was singing in the rain in a sycamore at the foot of Aldcliffe Hall Lane, and the Willow Warbler singing feebly by the walled meadow smelled new.
A new Sedge Warbler was chattering a few hundred yards to the south (although any of its kin at Freeman's Pools were silent) so signs of mid-spring passage migration seemed to aided rather than hampered by the early drizzle.
The only Wheatear I could find was a male, and not the ten hands at the shoulder 'definite Greenland' that everyone's on about these days, even though it was standing up straight (probably to have a peer at me)...
A Whimbrel was quietly feeding by cadaver corner, and a scan of the Lune estuary west marshes revealed precisely no ibises, and an impressive fifteen Eider.
The Long-tailed Tit nest I've had half an eye on by the sewage works is still active, as is a nest-building Chiffchaff.
My snap below is dedicated to all the local dog-walkers who see me scanning Freeman's Pools and ask me if I'm looking for deer (no mate, I'm grilling the habbo for an overshooting Sylvia!)...enjoy!
DH.
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