Every Saturday morning during migration times I follow the same 'northeast run' in search of that little something different here's an eaxample of a typical September morning:
Port Mooar
A small bay with rocky pools and exposed patches of sand. Just inland is a small wooded and scrubby ‘valley’, very reminiscent of a miniature Cornish valley.
I arrived here this morning just as the sun was starting to peep over the Cumbrian hills on the horizon. There was fairly strong easterly breeze blowing and after last night’s heavy downpours it had great potential for an arrival of migrants.
The very first bird I heard as I got out of the car was a Greenshank calling from the rocky pools on the shore and I quickly located it as it flew across the bay. There was actually very little on the shoreline apart from the usual Redshank and Oystercatchers, but on the pebble bank just before the peach there were several Rock Pipits, Meadow Pipits and Pied Wagtails. A Grey Wagtail was also seen as it stood on the rocks in the middle of the stream the crosses the beach and a Stonechat was on top of the bushes at the side of the car park. Walking inland to the small valley I immediately picked up on Robin song – the bushes were alive them. “This has potential”, I though to myself and proceeded to find shelter from the wind so I could scan the rest of the cover in comfort. There were many Goldcrests calling amongst them were several Chiffchaffs and a male Blackcap.
Just then two Choughs flew overhead calling closely followed by a circling female Sparrowhawk.
I suppose, like many ‘patch workers’, we all have a favourite area on our rounds. Mine is a single hawthorn bush which is heavily overgrown with brambles and Honeysuckle. It’s strange phenomenon, but any bird in this valley will sooner or later pay a visit to this bush. This morning it held a good variety of species – Song Thrush, Blackbird, more Chiffchaffs, a Whitethroat, several Greenfinch and Goldfinch and one of my particular favourites, a small party of Long-tailed Tits, along with Blue Great and Coal Tits. I watched the area for a while but nothing else of note caught my attention so I decided to move on to the next stop on my route.
Maughold Churchyard
An old cemetery surrounded on three sides by open grazing land and on the western edge by a large mature garden.
Getting out of the car I was immediately struck by how many Meadow Pipits were in the area along with several dozen Pied Wagtails there must have been a couple of hundred of them. Following the circular path round the edge of the cemetery, the usual gang of House Sparrows were chatting away and a young Wheatear was perched on the only gravestone that didn’t hold a Meadow Pipit. Again there were a lot of Robins but there was nothing else of note that I could locate as the bushes of the garden were getting battered by the annoying wind. So on to the next stop.
Gob-ny-Rona, Port Lewaigue
A small promontory on the southern edge of Ramsey Bay, it has many bushes and brambles with a few scattered willows.
Again the first birds I heard were Robins and a small party of Goldfinch were feeding noisily in the rough ground beside the car park.
There were several Goldcrest calling from a nearby willow and on investigation I also found 2 Blackcap and about half a dozen Chiffchaff. Then I got abrief glimpse of large grey warbler as it dived into dense cover. I waited for what seemed like an age (but, in reality, was only about 2 minutes) for the bird to show itself. Eventually it popped out onto a bramble branch and started to devour the blackberries – a Garden Warbler, a local rarity.
It now started to pour down with rain so I took shelter overlooking a small hollow which in the past has held Wryneck and Redstart. Again, there were Robins everywhere and a couple more Blackcap but after 10 minutes I didn’t get on to anything of particular and. As I was getting very wet, headed back to the car to scan the bay in relative comfort.
There were several Redshank and Oystercatchers on the beach and a lone Heron, looking very bedraggled, on the rocks. Unfortunately a dog-walker managed to spoil any hope I had of sitting out the rain so I moved on to the next stop.
Ramsey Promenade and the Grand Island Hotel
The tide was still quite well out and the rain still pouring heavily so I stayed in the car to scan the area (lazy, I know). There was a party of Starlings, about 60 strong, feeding on the tide wrack and amongst them were Rock pipits, Meadow Pipits and Pied Wagtails with a group of Turnstone and Ringed Plover - but no sign yet of the traditional over-wintering Black Redstart.
Up at the sewerage out-flow there were a few Black-headed Gulls and Shags but there was nothing else on the sea here - a favoured area for the wintering flock of Goldeneye.
Glascoe Dubh
A small pond which attracts a variety of wildfowl and ‘plastics’.
Just a few Mallard and Teal on the pool, but a ringtail Hen Harrier put in a brief fly-by.
The Phurt
An area of coastal scrub, disused farm buildings and gardens
Offshore the last few remaining Gannets were involved in something of a feeding frenzy, with a few Curlew, Redshank and Oystercatchers on the beach. In the bushes I managed to locate 2 Sedge Warblers (quite late for the island), several Stonechat and a female Reed Bunting set the pulse racing for a short time (last week I had briefly seen a bunting here that looked very like an Ortolan).
There were still one or two House Martins around the small colony and Swallows were ‘streaming through’ overhead – they got very agitated by the presence of a hunting female Peregrine which blasted down the shore.
Point of Ayre
Low heather and gorse with a pebble beach and a working lighthouse with walled garden. There is also a large refuse tip.
Round the coastal side of the tip there were hundreds of gulls washing themselves in the surf and despite my best efforts I couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary – just Herring, Lesser and Greater Black-backs, Common and Black-headed gulls. On the fence bordering the tip I counted 38 Raven, 4 Hooded Crows and 2 Magpie.
There were several small parties of Meadow Pipits and Skylarks flying overhead and my second Wheatear of the day gave tantalising views amongst the gorse.
Up by the main lighthouse (there’s a smaller, disused one that we use when sea watching) there were more Meadow Pipits and Pied Wagtails and 7 more Wheatear running around.
Offshore the usual flotillas of Shags, Cormorants, Razorbills, Guillemots were present with the odd Black Guillemot amongst them.
2 Red-throated Divers flew past in the distance and a dozen or so more Gannets, 30 Kittiwakes and 4 Sandwich Terns were feeding offshore. A school of 10+ Harbour Porpoise moved through also.
All in all a fairy typical morning, but slightly disappointing for migrants.