Friday 20 September 2019

Today was very similar to the way it has been with bright sunshine, light winds and a stunning sunset; but there was one big difference... the wind was coming from the east.

Expectations were high and everyone was out and it wasn't long before birds started to be found. First a Lapland Bunting on the narrows, next thing there was two Wrynecks found flushing from the main track, and then some oddities were found including a Firecrest in Plas Withy, a Pintail over the narrows, and a Ring Ouzel that was very mobile. Not bad going!

There were more sign of autumn moving on too with our first small numbers of finches heading south made up one 152 Linnets, 23 Goldfinch, a single Siskin and 28 Chaffinch. These are just the start of more to come though. Around the scrubbed areas more things were seen feeding away with a single Spotted Flycatcher, 30 Goldcrests, ten Chiffchaffs, three Blackcaps, singles of Garden Warbler, Common Whitethroat and Lesser Whitethroat too. Robins were still present in number with 29 in various places, a Whinchat showing its 'Wheatear-esc' tail pattern seen with some Stonechat; of which there were more today, 25 counted.
The Narrows provided some visual migration numbers with Meadow Pipits still in high numbers, 268, and birds such as Skylarks and Grey Wagtails were note with 26 and 10 respectively. The narrows is also the Place waders congregate and although there wasn't any noticable changes in numbers there were still 40 Turnstones, five Redshanks, two Snipes, two Dunlins and a Golden Plover. Another nice birds seen just offshore was a Teal, our first for a couple of weeks.

Birds of prey put in a showing too with three Peregrines seen chasing various things, our second Merlin of the Autumn, two Buzzards high over the mountain and a single Sparrowhawk.

All in all not a bad days birding and with more winds from the east to come we are hopping for things to get better and better!

Firecrest                                 Lewis Hooper

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