11th March

Yellow Horned - Somerset Levels

Yellowhammer - Brean Down 11-3-12

9th March

Brean Down 10mph SW wind, 46f (40f wind chill): Passerine vismig down on yesterday due to the wind swing but a noteworthy passage of gulls (1,391 Herring and 205 Lesser Black-backed) seen filtering off the Mendip Hills. Totals: 1784 individuals, 11 species, 2:00 hours.

Brean Down 8th March

Pied Wagtail

Golden Plover

Brean Down: 7.5mph NNW wind, 42f (36f wind chill). A big Meadow Pipit push this morning between 6:40 and 8:40. Flocks mainly around 3 to 20 birds but 2 flocks of 60 went through. One of the alba wagtails was identified as Pied from photos. Nearly all passerines were again coming in from the south-east and heading NNW out to sea over Weston Bay. Totals: 991 individuals, 12 species, 2:00 hours which includes 760 Meadow Pipits.

Birds on the move in Northern Europe today included 2,700 Dark-bellied Brent Goose, 10 Sandwich Tern, 39 Red Kite, 98 Crane and 2 Whimbrel

Brean Down 6th March

Meadow Pipit

Siskin

Brean Down: 40f (36f wind chill) and 3.5mph NW wind. Vismig now starting to pick up. A light but steady passage of passerines coming mainly from the south-east this morning. Pipits and finches made up the bulk whereas gull passage was at a virtual standstill by comparison to previous days. Totals: 176 individuals, 13 species, 1:30 hours.

The Norfolk satellite tracked Cuckoo's in the Congo have already started moving since the middle of February. Their progress can be viewed here:

http://www.bto.org/science/migration/tracking-studies/cuckoo-tracking

Brean Down 4th March

The trailing edge of a trough that went through mid morning

Brean Down. Low pressure moving east with several fronts including a trough that brought widespread rain to the county clearing by 10:30am. Nothing recorded moving during the front or up to an hour and a half after it had passed. A 13mph cold north-easterly wind brought temperatures down to 40f (31f wind chill).

Brean Down 3rd March

Brean Down: 47f (40f wind chill), 15mph SSW wind and stratus cloud changing by 8:30 to 48f (44f wind chill) and 8mph SW wind and clearing sky to 20% cloud cover. 2 Black Redstart still present. Vismig tally for Brean Down: 1086 birds, 12 species in 2:45 hours.

Vismig highlights in Northern Europe today involved counts of 1025 Common Crane (Belgium, Denmark and Netherlands), 407 Woodlark (Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands), 100 Whooper Swan (Denmark, Netherlands, UK) and 1280 auk sp. (UK).

Common Yellowthroat at Rhiwderin, Gwent

Common Yellowthroat

I went to see the Common Yellowthroat at Rhiwderin, Gwent on Saturday. Possibly not the best day of the week to go but by the time I arrived it was early afternoon and only 30 people were present. The bird had been present for over a week by that time so the masses would have largely been and gone. Although only showing briefly for seconds at a time the bird appeared to be quite actively feeding whilst I was there and showed a good amount of tolerance to the noisy audience. I first saw the Yellowthroat as it flew from one bramble to another. The jerky bounding flight action coupled with a Bearded Tit like call was very diagnostic. My next view of the Yellowthroat came when it hopped into view at ground level right in front of everyone and because most were chatting, texting, picking their nose or tying shoelaces only I saw it and managed one shot before it flew back into cover.

On one occasion the Yellowthroat had worked it's way through 20 metres or so of thick bramble reappearing on the other side. I don't recall having seen this behaviour before and think that this was achievable because the bird spent it's time hopping around on the ground.