Stratospheric Mipits

As Kim and I unlocked the gate at the Obs this morning at 5:30 a.m. it was crystal clear with a 10 mph northwesterly wind. The clear skies would be a feature of the morning, but not in an altogether positive way.

After the wet and murky weather yesterday the clear skies this morning opened up the Meadow Pipit floodgates and they were on the move immediately, but had started to fizzle out by 9:00 a.m. As it was so clear most of the Mipits were very high and could be heard and not seen. This is very frustrating as you can only really enter one bird per call heard in your notebook for certain, even though you know there will be many more! Similarly the few Siskins we had this morning were heard and not seen.

Our vis totals were two Greenfinches, 89 Meadow Pipts, three Alba Wags, a White Wagtail, seven Curlews, three Siskins and a Skylark. Talking to Ian who was seawatching he said that there were huge numbers of Meadow Pipits heading northeast a long way out to sea, which would probably indicate a departure from North Wales.

With clear skies grounded migrants weren't expected and the only grounded bird was a single Reed Bunting. We ringed just five birds as follows:

Meadow Pipit - 3
Blue Tit - 1
Greenfinch - 1

Meadow Pipit

There is a potentially interesting weather synopsis here in the northwest with strong southeasterly winds in the morning and a weather front coming in from the Irish Sea. However, after just looking at the charts the rain front might come in later in the morning and not at first light as per the forecast earlier in the day. The only way to find out is to get up and get out!