Here's a guest blog from Gavin Chambers. I mentioned him in my last blog - he has recently completed a contract at RSPB Vyrnwy and is heading back to Mersehead to do some residential volunteering before some other lucky reserve snaps him up! Gavin has made several visits to the Mull in the last few weeks to record numbers of birds passing through on migration. Over to Gavin:
On Monday I was dithering whether or not to head down to the Mull of Galloway. Showers were forecast for the morning and the wind forecast was easterlies or north-easterlies, depending on the website I looked at, with easterlies being desirable for visible migration watching (aka vis-migging) at the Mull. I made a late decision to give it a go and hope that the stormy conditions through Sunday into Monday may have held up any birds migrating south.
Sunrise over the Machars (copyright Gavin Chambers)
Arriving at 7.30am I had already driven through some heavy showers and the view out into Luce Bay was rather moody, though wind direction and strength appeared good (light and easterly). With rain approaching I positioned myself behind the visitor centre to keep out of the wind and because the birds prefer to migrate into a head wind most were likely to pass over the lighthouse/RSPB visitor centre area.
Initially there were a few meadow pipits calling and starting to move east despite the light rain, but when the rain stopped around 7.50am the floodgates opened. Waves of meadow pipits started to fly over and by 8.15am just over 1000 had been recorded. Linnets were also moving in big numbers, along with swallows and pied wagtails in smaller numbers and the first few skylarks started to arrive.
Skylarks heading over Mull of Galloway in 2013 (copyright Gavin Chambers)
The movement of birds heading east felt almost constant and given they don’t fly over in nice flocks of the same species it becomes very hard to pick certain species out. By far the best way to identify species while vis-migging is recognizing the birds call (easier said than done!) and with practise and experience the way in which a bird flies can also give at least an indication to its identification.
Great Tits on top of Lighthouse (copyright Gavin Chambers)
Other birds seen/heard included chaffinch, greenfinch, goldfinch, reed bunting, yellowhammer, grey wagtail, and I was slightly surprised to see small flocks of snipe heading over. A group of five great tits also made an appearance, deciding that the top of the lighthouse was a good vantage point. All species mentioned so far can be considered British residents/breeders, however a lot of these birds also arrive from Scandinavia and will spend winter in the UK. The only bird seen that had definitely come from abroad was a single whooper swan which flew west along the headland.
Whooper Swan heading west (copyright Gavin Chambers)
At around 10.00am the wind started to die down and change direction. This started to change the birds' behaviour as they were no longer wanting to head east off the headland and were instead u-turning back along the headland.
So the facts and figures with the complete results found on the Trektellen website, along with past counts from the Mull of Galloway and other vis-mig sites. http://www.trektellen.org/trektelling.asp?telpost=851
Highlights were certainly the 3031 meadow pipits***, 5th highest GB October count, and 1918 skylarks. The skylark count is the highest GB autumn count since 1983 (excluding cold weather movements), suggesting that the Mull of Galloway is a significant site for autumn migration.
Gavin
*** PS (From Jone: The blog title is another of my attempts at a pun: meadow pipits are widely known as 'mipits' amongst birders.)