Heard lots of Scoters last night so did an early download of last night only Nocmig data and at least eight distinct batches (flocks) between 23:13 and 00:45. Which somewhat puts a downer  on the plans I had to go and try and see the Wizzal Black Scoter on the first day off I've had in ages on Thursday, but to use the phrase "it seems that bird has flown" . 

4 Buzzard just displaying over our garden near to bank park Warrington more than I saw on the patch this morning lol

Nocmig rig on the last week  (4th - 11th March) seems to have gone to full wader mode.

Decent (0.98 or greater correlation, then looked at sonogramms to check if good) Avocet, Ruff, Curlew, Snipe, Ringed Plover, Little Ringed Plover most nights, mainly between 4 and 6 am, a few between 10-12 midnight.

Common Scoter a few nights, mainly 10-12pm.

Pinkies early morning pretty much every day and Whooper Swans in the middle of the nights 5th-9th March.

Barn Owl hundreds of times......even at 0.99 confidence levels.............but I think this is mistaking for the Tawny Owls in the trees next to our house / other pair 200m away in the Market Garden which I've queried with BTO Acoustic Pipeline. (Ian can mention of Ban Owl be left in this instance as I'm sure it is false but I want to highlight that the BTO AC Pipeline might get some fake hits).

Redwing and Fieldfare dropping right off. Two high confidence hints of Ring Ouzel on 10th but I couldn't confirm it on the Sonogramme.

Gulls around 5am seem to be a new passage I haven't had since starting the rig last autumn, Black-headed, Common and Herring seem to come my way between 6 and 7 am. From the time gap between the two recorders (on a N/S line) I think the birds are heading east. As my recorders are dusk/dawn timings I haven't got the return passage...one presumes these are coming out of Frodsham Score roost.

Real life birding...two Buzzards sat in a tree in my Garden today. My 18 yr old ginger cat 'Weasel' looked a bit worried and wouldn't go outside.

North Appleton nocmig last couple of nights, plenty more Avocet calls, 12 Oystercatcher calls, and decent snippets of Redshank and Greenshank and Green Sandpiper. Owls and Thrushes made up  most of the rest of the species detected.

I wonder if its the same pair that have returned to roost on the Iceland warehouse roof , they have returned every feb for the last five years 

Mr Blackcap/Barry has been less vigilant the last couple of days, a Robin, Coal Tit and 3 Goldfinch got through his defences yesterday so I am wondering if he is indeed extending his manned territory to other gardens including yours Andy, this could explain what is leading to a slight slacking in our garden! I do hope so! I still caught him shouting at a Collared Dove (who ignored him) earlier though and he was even bellowing when my cat went out today too!

Sunday 12th and yesterday morning for a short period we had a Fieldfare joining the 10-12 Blackbirds and 1x Song Thrush that were regulars on our small back garden lawn whilst the snow lay. No sign today.

Barry Blackcap still Bullying at our feeders, yet strangely I haven't seen him take food himself!

Four sets Common Scoter calls on last night Nocmig, going S.

In the last couple of weeks the male Blackcap in our Appleton garden has become very territorial, he chased away the female Blackcap that was there before him, also 4 types of Tits, Green/Gold Finches, Robins, Nuthatch, he even flaps his wings and makes a loud repeated rude call at Starlings and Collared Doves...

I have 7 feeders spread around the garden and he patrols them all from dawn 'til dusk despite me moving them around a bit, so I no longer get much his size in the garden except for the occasional Dunnock or ground feeding Chaffinch which he sometimes allows.  In the neighbouring garden trees there are still 10+ Greenfinch, a charm of around 30 Goldfinch is doing the rounds every day in addition to a large flock of mixed tits that now go past my garden instead of visiting like usual.

From my kitchen window yesterday I saw two Sparrowhawk together in the sky at the same time, they looked like they were doing an aerial display in the (brief!) blue sky until they sank out of view. I've only ever seen (male) one at a time here before. I was half-hoping they get my bruiser of a Blackcap so I can see some other birds again but on the other-hand I am getting quite fond of the plucky little fellow now. Seeing him chunner at squirrels and starlings can be quite amusing!

Squirrels, Wood Pigeons, Magpies, around 10 Blackbirds most times and a Song Thrush are doing their best to work on the food supply (blueberries, mealworms, Sunflower hearts, suet pellets, fatballs, monkeynuts) that the smaller birds are leaving. Despite Mr Blackcap not liking the Nyger seed he won't let the Goldfinches at that either. 

We are also still hearing the Tawny Owls calling most nights/early mornings. 

I am not sure where to put this one but at Ackers Pit the day before the snow started there was still a Goosander (M) and it was my first time seeing a Kingfisher there, it flew in the direction of the housing estate!

Female Blackcap on feeder (mealworms) North Appleton.

Two separate Hawfinch calls around 02:34-02:37 on 18th Dec on Nocmig recordings. That'd have been a nice garden tick!

Our Tawny Owl pair are back in the garden trees / trees opposite side of the Lane.

17 Ring-necked Parakeets roosted last night at Warrington Golf Club, seen flying in over A49.

On my garden feeders in Appleton yesterday M Blackcap and M Greenfinch. A female Blackcap has been around for a few weeks on and off but it was the first Greenfinch back on the feeders for me since last winter.

North Appleton

15th-24th migration reports.

Edit (27/11/24) now had more time to go through data. 17th / 18th 18/7 Woodcock, corresponding with the 'Woodcock November Moon' how good are old Wives tails / almanacs as a source of data...they manged alright decades / centuries ago without EBird or Birdtrack to pick up seasonal trends... though I guess your life depended on it more when you lived on the land.

Still small amounts of Redwing, Song Thrush and Blackbirds recorded each night (5-10 most nights of each)  generally going south apart from on 24th where quite a few birds were going N judging on the time difference between pairs of recorders.

Most interesting was three Bittern flight calls (not me snoring as per the previous Bitten log) around 4:19 am on 17th. All look and sound good when the sonograms are played. Going S.

Lots of Teal (76 reported calls) on 23rd/24th which corresponds with an influx seen at Moore and per comms that mention similar at Woolston.

Today, Ring-necked Parakeets coming out the roost at the Market Garden by Red Lane allotments.

-- Edited by Andy Slee on Tuesday 26th of November 2024 06:53:33 PM

North Appleton.

Nocturnal Migration reports 10th -14th Nov

Redwing well down to between 60 - 20 per night. N-S for the 15 out the 300 calls I compared Sonogram timings for, not a single S-N.

Fieldfare absent. 10-11th Blackbird and Song Thrush popped up with 30-50 records p.n.

Still getting the 6-7 am Curlew movement every day...have moved the sound recorders about off a N/S line to extreme corners of the gardens but couldn't get any better guess than previous than this is a S-N morning movement.

12th Nov / 13th Nov (around 2am) lots of Whooper Swans - 14 detects which look good on Sonogram/Raven.

What is confusing me is we have Tawny Owls in the Garden and sometimes the Market Gardens nearby. They never pick up via BTO Acoustic Pipeline (I've sent the Q in) so perhaps they aren't one of the monitored species. Yet Barn Owl get picked up nightly so I assumed that Barn Owl calls were mistakes for Tawny actual calls. Until at 5:34 am Thursday (14/11) I was driving own my road for an early shift and over the allotment field was indeed a Barn Owl. I'd never appreciated they would venture into 'urban' areas (look on Google Maps, the bird flew from W of Red Lane onto the area by the allotment / Market Gardens. Tell me I'm not going mad and we don't have a leuclistic Tawny knocking about instead?

16:10 in rapid succession flocks of 77, 95, 43 and 88 Pink-footed Geese over North Appleton (coming from the South). The flocks of 77 and 43 both turned west at the Ship Canal and headed NNE over Fiddlers Ferry (which is a direct bearing to Martin Mere) whilst the flocks of 95 and 88 turned again to line up with the Ship Canal and went WSW/SW to either Frodsham Score of the Dee Estuary.

20 Redwings this morning in poplars behind our house central Warrington near bank park . 150 Redwing over sw

Andy Slee wrote:

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Andy Slee wrote:

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Each of the last three night Nocmig Rig has picked up over 200+ Redwing calls pretty much spread through the night. 

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20th to 24th Redwings dropped to less than 100 per night but still a steady stream with 8 Fieldfare on 24th and a Hawfinch which looks good also on Sonogram (0.98 match).

Interestingly I've found that my PC isn't very quick to process files via the BTO Acoustic pipeline (3hrs processing per nights data) but when I run a Windows Emulator App with BTO AP on my iPhone I could do five nights data in seven hrs!

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 28th - 30th around 60 Redwing per night in small groups of up to 10 close together.

Fieldfare 8 29th.

Hawficnh five calls captured between 04:L50 and 05:20 30th Oct.

(These are all North Appleton).

11  Ring-necked Parakeets Red Lane Allotments

Interesting about the geese thanks as I had been watching them in the mornings around 8am (going SW) and evenings around 5/6pm a few times over the last week when I have been around and wondering where they were going between but hadn't got around to looking on a map (watching from Appleton, the most I estimated so far was around 1100 on Sunday in the evening going NE towards Liverpool direction.

A walk near the M56, starting from Arley Road, using the public right of way through fields towards Apple Jacks Adventure Farm on 19th October, over the motorway bridge and around the other side. Not the nicest walk due to the traffic noise at times and the ground conditions requiring vigilance but still Meadow Pipit, Skylarks, Redwing and then late afternoon Starlings starting to gather for murmuration (not huge numbers but already interesting to watch as they swirled around and then came down in the fields repeatedly). 

Over our garden near to Bank park today

Pink Footed Geese - 60 > SW

Buzzard over the garden being chased by a crazy

30 Magpies all headed towards the park.

Nuthatch on my garden feeders in Appleton just now. First since Boxing Day 2019.

And for the second night in a row the two juv Tawny Owls and their parents are deciding to practice screeching in the tree outside my bedroom window in North Appleton. Lovely to watch but last night kept me awake from 2:15 to 5:00am! (Old listed house, none acoustic glazing).

(Parent owls are now familiarly known as Osheen and Rosheen, you juvs have been named Screech and Tounge if anyone gets the play on names from 1970s cartoon magazines).