This morning I chose to visit Morton Bagot, but parked at the church with a view to heading south first and ending up back at the flash field by midday in the hope of a better chance of pulling back the Willow Emerald seen by Sam. It was a good plan, and had unexpected consequences.
The weather was perfect, hardly any wind and largely grey skies to begin with, the sun appearing from about 11.30. After hearing a Mistle Thrush near the church, and the first of three Grey Wagtails the early signs were encouraging.
They say you make your own luck, but really it is just very lucky if you are in the right place at the right time. As I reached the bee-hives much later than if I had followed the normal route, the first Siskin of the autumn made its presence known as a calling bird flew over unseen. That was nice, but better was to follow.
A couple of days ago I had twitched a Pink-footed Goose at Tardebigge Reservoir, and as luck would have it the bird called several times. This was an unfamiliar call to me since my previous experience has always been of calling flocks of birds on the east coast, so the individual calls are lost in the general gabble. So I took note.
Shortly after hearing the Siskin I heard a goose call, and it immediately reminded me of the Tardebigge bird. Perhaps it was the same bird? I dashed through a gap in the hedge and found three geese flying west, not particularly high up. I looked to see if one might be the bird and was stunned to see that all three were Pink-footed Geese. Dark heads and necks, dark bills, brown bodies and a hint of grey on the upper wing coverts. The call was a double syllable, slightly squeaky "poo-up" call, nothing like the familiar Greylag's call. This was the second for the site, the last being in 2010 (pre-blog).
As the birds disappeared behind a copse I dashed through another gap, scrabbling for my camera. I got onto them again and actually had them momentarily in the view-finder, but as I pressed the shutter they disappeared over a ridge and I missed them. It was a shame but I doubt the camera would have helped much anyway.
The rest of the morning was good. My first Song Thrush for a while, at least 85 Meadow Pipits, two Whinchats, six Stonechats, four House Martins, a Swallow, seven Blackcaps, and six Chiffchaffs.
 |
| Meadow Pipits |
Singing Robins were everywhere, and I logged 24. In fact my final species total was a healthy 54.
The only let down, apart from there being few photo opportunities, was that the nearest flash is again close to drying up and I managed just two Snipe (on the HOEF scrapes), two Grey Herons, and four Teal (on the furthest flash).
Another disappointment was the dearth of Willow Emeralds. It looks like I'll have to hope for some next year.
But it was a good day, and I'm not complaining.
PS: The moth trap went out for only the second time this month and I caught 89 moths of 17 species. New for the year were Lunar Underwing (30, which equals my highest previous yearly total - but in just one night), Garden Rose Tortrix, and what is either Epinothia nisella or Epinotia cinereana. The latter is very scarce but can only be identified through dissection.
 |
| Lunar Underwing |
 |
| Garden Rose Tortrix |
 |
| Epinotia nisella/cinereana |
It seems that picking the right night is just as effective as trapping every Friday night for the Garden Moth Survey.
No comments:
Post a Comment