Sunday 9 October 2011

Billinge Hill

Pink-footed Goose 1000 - 200 over beacon heading SE at 8:30am, 800 distantly over Old Coach Road.
Raven 2 (see photos)
Lesser Redpoll 3 over beacon S
Meadow Pipit 40 mainly over beacon S
Skylark 50 over beacon S, including one flock of 20.
Bullfinch 1
Goldcrest 3
Coal Tit 1
Buzzard 1
Yellowhammer 30



It was a much better start to the day than forecast, quite mild and sunny at times, and even the wind wasn't much more than a stiff breeze. Passage was better than yesterday, but still a bit slow, and there was no sign of any Wheatears today, let alone the hoped for Ring Ouzel or Crossbill. It's always pleasing to see Redpolls passing over though.
At 8:30am I spotted a large flock of geese distantly over the Old Coach Road (about 5 miles away as the goose flies). I watched them for a few minutes, and saw a flock of about 200 break away from the main group and head towards me. Eventually they flew right over the beacon and away south east, eventually crossing over Pennington Flash and then were lost to view. Lancashire Pink-feet are known to commute to Norfolk, and perhaps that's where these were heading, but it seemed a little odd that part of the flock should break away like that. On the walk back to the car, near the horse paddocks, a harsh croaking alerted me to two Ravens.
No sign of Merville du Jour in the trap this morning, just Common Marbled Carpet and Angle Shades. Perhaps tonight.....

3 comments:

  1. Oh,i thought there were quite a few to be seen at this time of year.Was it just because of the unseasonably warm air plume that covered the country last week and brought a few migrants with it?

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  2. Most of the migrants were in the south and at coastal locations. The weather was exceptional last week, and we can only expect moth trapping to go down hill from here until spring. I have caught moths in December and January, but they are very few and far between, and I can go days, even weeks, without a single moth until we get to the end of March / April.

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  3. Cheers!Are these traps available to buy over the internet and how expensive are they?

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