Dave's Birding Blog

The wind has been stubbornly remaining in the east for much of April and that is not the best direction for mist-netting in my garden. The 'dip' is quite sheltered from even quite strong westerlies but even a hint of a breeze from the east isn't good. So I've had to make do when I can and though I've had a steady trickle of unringed Chaffinches and Goldfinches in the garden, I've only managed to trap a few but enough to know that they're not hanging around.

One of my Redpolls was controlled at Heysham this-morning which is rather nice having ringed and retrapped it twice here between Feb and just over a week ago on April 10th.

Otherwise it's been mothing time with one notable record of a Waved Umber - very scarce in Lancashire, recorded at only a handful of sites before.
That and a couple of micros were new for the 10km square and good records for the upcoming Moth Atlas. Otherwise it's been the usual stuff - Common/Small/Powdered/Twin-spotted Quake…

Finch migration is well under way and so I've been trying to do as much ringing in the garden as time and weather allow. The wind has been a constant problem with mist-netting this winter - that and the very mild temperatures has meant that the birds have been able to find plenty of natural food and therefore less reliant on the feeders that attract them in.
Last week I had a chance on Wednesday morning and so I put a single 9 meter net up 'down the dip' and was rewarded with a host of new birds - first of all there were good numbers of Siskins moving through, so nine in the net on the first round was very fine! Then there were the Redpolls - many new expected Lessers but one Common (Meally) Redpoll that was clearly grey and larger than the rest of the Redpoll cohort but not by a long way. And then there were the Goldfinches and Bullfinches (19 different individuals trapped so far this winter). All in all, very satisfying but just a prelude to the weekend's highlights.
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I've been so busy over the past few months I've been neglecting to keep my blog up to date and so, after an interesting trip to Scotland this weekend, I decided it was about time I wrote something down.

You never know how useful this stuff can be but I have been contacted on several occasions with requests for help on certain areas I've visited. The most recent one was for the Cuban Grassquit site which was successfully relayed and the birds seen!

Not that this post will offer much of that of course. In the middle of last week, John Wright contacted me about the possibility of going for the American Herring Gull and possibly the American Coot which were both a fair way from home (for them and me!). The weather had been good and so we made plans. though the forecast took a turn for the worse AND the AHG was being rather difficult, we nevertheless decided to head off on Friday evening, stopping at my sister-in-law's place in Glasgow before heading towards Campbelltown on…