Monday 16 October 2017

Migration studies

Hello

John Gamble visited the RSPB reserve of Minsmere (Suffolk) on Saturday and his images of the day follow the narrative of this blog.

Yesterday (Sunday) and an avid band of ringers spent some time working at Stortons Gravel Pits on the outskirts of Northampton where they managed to catch and process 102 birds of which 76 were new. The hoped-for Redwings and Goldcrests didn't materialise but 17 different species was a nice selection as follows - 5 Wrens, a Treecreeper, 12 Long-tailed Tits, a Chiffchaff, 31 Blue Tits, 19 Great Tits, a Bullfinch, 6 Chaffinches, 5 Reed Buntings, a Cetti's Warbler, a Robin, 13 Greenfinches, a Blackbird, 2 Great Spotted Woodpeckers, a Dunnock, a Song Thrush and a Magpie.

Today (Monday) saw Jacob completing a visible migration ('vismig') session at Pitsford Reservoir whereby he attempted to collate the numbers of birds moving into or over the site (with assistance from other observers), mostly apparently on migration heading in a south westerly direction between 7.35am and 12noon:-

2 Greenshank, 25 Woodpigeons, 69 Skylarks, 1 Swallow, 923 Starlings, 316 Redwings, 10 Song Thrushes, a Grey Wagtail, 3 'alba' wagtails, 28 Meadow Pipits, 50 Chaffinches, 2 Bramblings, 5 finch sp, 2 Bullfinches, 2 Linnets, 8 'Redpolls', 13 Goldfinches, 9 Siskins and 2 Reed Buntings.

Just shows what you can find sometimes by looking up and concentrating on the distant horizon!

Regards

Neil M


Kestrel.


Hobby.


Little Stint.




Bearded Tits.

All images courtesy
of John Gamble.

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