Thursday, 13 October 2011

Passage over Queens Park

It just goes to show that if you keep your eyes open at the right time of year, you don't have to go very far to see some decent birds. In a four hour period this morning, whilst working on my computer and waiting in for a plumber, I recorded 36 species of birds, many of which were passing over and heading south or south west. Some of these species were really only identifiable by call, and others were quite high up and could easily have been missed. Even so, a remarkable total given that I don't have a garden, just a small yard near the town centre. Here are the highlights;

Crossbill 3 over SW at 8:45
Goosander 2 (male and female) over NE at 10:30
Fieldfare 87 over SW in two flocks of 57 and 30 at 10:00
Redwing 2 over SW at 9:45
Buzzard 3 drifted south at 12:15
Swallow 4 over S at 9:00
Skylark 22 over SW in dribs and drabs
Meadow Pipit 25 over SW also in dribs and drabs
Lesser black back Gull 100
Sparrowhawk 2
Grey Wagtail 2
Coal Tit 1

Also: Kingfisher 1 seen on stream which runs into park at 15:15. Species number 37.

Also: 1 Red Admiral Butterfly, 1 Small Tortoiseshell

In the middle of all this activity, I was also receiving texts from a friend on Billinge Hill, who had 14 Crossbills over, 1 Redwing and 19 Fieldfares, all of which were heading in my general direction! A very exciting morning. The Goosander were quite low down and I would guess were flying from Eccleston Mere or Prescot Reservoirs to Carr Mill Dam.

Although the list is impressive, it does make me wonder what I must have missed, given that I wasn't exactly gazing up at the sky all morning.

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