The floodgates could open this weekend

With a warm south-easterly airflow forecast for the next few days, the scene is set for a rush of long-distance migrants to arrive. Chiffchaffs have trickled in steadily during the last week but this weekend should see the floodgates open.  Along with Chiffchaffs we should see a rush of Blackcaps, Sand Martins, Swallows and Ring Ouzels.

Blackcap by Adrian Dancy

The BTO satellite tagged Cuckoos are still in West Africa but will be getting ready to cross the Sahara any day now. Chris the Cuckoo was the first to do this on 4 April last year. So, of the eleven birds that we are following any one of them could move any day now. Check them out here. Knowing this, it came as a surprise when the vis mig watchers at Hengistbury Head, Dorset, saw a Cuckoo coming in off the sea on 27 March. Maybe there will be more during the next week taking advantage of the forecast weather.

Cuckoo by Steve Ashton

Although a good variety of species of summer migrants have already been recorded this spring, we should see this increase rapidly during the next week and there could well be some interesting birds too. It is still a little early but I wouldn’t be too surprised if the odd Bluethroat was found and, even though it is not traditionally a spring bird, Rustic Bunting is not unprecedented at this time of the year, bearing in mind the forecast conditions.

Bluethroat by Amy Lewis

Any lingering winter visitors should also clear out during the next week, so we could see odd flocks of Redwing, Fieldfare and ducks, geese and swans on the move too. It could be well worth checking out those inland lakes, gravel pits and reservoirs for a scoter or two.

Spring has arrived!

The high pressure system over the UK during the last few days brought the forecast spring-like conditions, and the expected rush of long-distance summer migrants. Wheatears made it as far north as Mull, Argyll, and the first House Martins joined Sand Martins and Swallows but it was a reeling Grasshopper Warbler and a couple of Yellow Wagtails that were most surprising amongst the common migrants. The average arrival date for the former is 13 April and 7 April for the latter, according to BirdFacts.

Yellow Wagtail by Jill Pakenham

 

Chiffchaff numbers began to build, bang on cue, and Meadow Pipits were on the move too, 330 were counted during a visible migration watch on Hengistbury Head, Dorset on 12 March, with four figure totals for Portland, also in Dorset on the same day. Smaller numbers of ‘alba’ wagtails also featured at both sites. The first Ring Ouzels were seen, along with a few Little Ringed Plovers and, as predicted, overshooting Hoopoes arrived, at least six were found, all in the south-west, with the exception of one in Kent also arrived in perfect overshoot conditions, which also brought a Great Spotted Cuckoo and a Wryneck to Pembrokeshire.

Great Spotted Cuckoo by Cliff Woodhead

 

Redwings have featured as a species on the move at several migration watchpoints, along with small flocks of Pink-footed Geese and Whooper Swans – twenty-five of the latter were seen sitting on the sea off Flamborough Head on the 12^th, with another twelve past there on the 13^th .

Whooper Swans by Jill Pakenham

 

High pressure is still set to dominate over the next few days with light north-westerly airflow setting in. This may well slow things down a little but won’t stop migration altogether, so, things are set to continue in a similar vein. Saturday into Sunday looks best for any overshooting migrants with Hoopoe still being favourite, and we could see the first large movement of Meadow Pipits and White Wagtails, and perhaps a few more Ring Ouzels.  

Get ready for an arrival of Chiffchaff

The last week has been fairly quiet migration wise, largely as a result of a fairly stiff westerly airflow, and the fact that it is still quite early in the season. However, a few summer visitors did manage to find their way here. At least four Ospreys were seen during the week, all in southern counties, and at least two more Garganey joined the couple that were here from the week before, along with a handful of Sand Martins.

Osprey by Luke Delve

With high pressure forecast to and warm southerly air forecast for Saturday we could see the first noticeable push of migrants into the UK and Chiffchaff has to be the favourite species to lead the way. At present we are in week ten of the year and the BirdTrack historical reporting rate shows that Chiffchaff begins to rise rapidly from week 11 (see below), so the timing couldn’t be better. 

ChiffChaff reported to week 10 (blue), historical (red)

The warm sunny and relatively still conditions are forecast to run well into next week too and, with high pressure stretching all the way from North Africa to northern Britain, we could see the odd Mediterranean overshoot. It is a little early but Hoopoe and Alpine Swift could be on the cards.

Migrants leaving the UK will also be able to take advantage of the light winds and good conditions and we should see an exodus of many of our winter visitors over the next few days. A migration watchpoint will definitely be the place to be over the next few days.

March is also the month when gulls are on the move and this was in evidence at Christchurch Harbour yesterday (6 March) when two Iceland Gulls, a Glaucous Gull, thirty-four Mediterranean Gulls, two Little Gulls and 98 Common Gulls were counted moving west past the site.

Mediterranean Gull by Andy Mason

Pelagic Birder who is currently off the coast of Ghana is reporting a large movement of skuas, mainly Pomarine but also involving Arctic and Long-tailed and a good numbers of Black Tern.

Spring might be back on hold

The short spell of warm southerly airflow that we experienced last week did bring a small number of summer migrants to the UK. A handful of Sand Martins were seen at a couple of south coast locations, a Swallow was seen in Somerset, a pair of Garganey were seen in Buckinghamshire and a Great Spotted Cuckoo got as far north as Ouessant, Brittany There was also some evidence of a small arrival of Chiffchaff on the south coast.

Garganey by Dawn Balmer

The return to, at times, strong westerlies put paid to further arrivals from the south this week but it didn’t stop some of our departing migrants from moving. Small numbers of Pink-footed Geese have been seen moving north along the east coast, and Greylag Geese have also been seen on passage over Fair Isle.

There has also been some auk passage past west coast watchpoints, mostly involving Guillemots and to a lesser extent, Razorbills. There have also been a few Puffins on the move but it seems that a large number of Puffins were caught up in the severe storms that lashed the Bay of Biscay last week. A coordinated count of dead Puffins on the beaches of France, between Finistère to the Spanish border, found over 12,000 individuals, amongst over 21,000 seabirds. Most of these birds would be just about to start the return journey to their breeding colonies, Ringed birds recovered so far have come from colonies in west Wales, northern Scotland, Orkney and Shetland.

From much further south, we received a report of Pomarine and Arctic Skuas on the move, along with a small number of Grey Phalaropes, in fact these birds were observed on passage from a research vessel 20 nautical miles off the coast of Ghana. With a bit of luck these birds could be flying past a British headland in a month or so. See here for more.

Pomarine Skua by Joe Pender

One of our satellite tagged Cuckoos has begun the second leg of his return journey to the UK and is now in Ghana, just north of Lake Volta. It won’t be too long before some of the others join him there.

The weather forecast for this weekend doesn’t look too promising for much migration to take place, however, there will be a small window during Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning when the winds in southern Britain will be light and from the south, courtesy of high pressure over France. If there are any migrants holding-up in France, Sunday morning might see them arrive here. It is still very early though so it would only involve a small number of birds. Wheatear has to be favourite with perhaps the first flush of Chiffchaffs.

One Wheatear doesn’t make a summer

One Wheatear doesn't make a summer...however, it is the first sign that the arrival of long-distance summer visitors is upon us. 

On 18 February, we received a report of a Wheatear in Derbyshire and, although it is early it is not unprecedented. Wheatears spend the winter months south of the Sahara, from Mauritania and Sierra Leone to the Indian Ocean. Apart from a few birds in Iraq, and the odd straggler in the United States, the entire world population winters in Africa. Of course we don’t know where Tuesday’s Wheatear spent the winter months, and maybe it didn’t cross the Sahara, but it could have. Wheatears begin to leave their winter quarters in early January, and by mid February passage is well underway in North Africa. So, if the Derbyshire bird began its migration in Early January it could complete the 4,500km (3,000 miles) journey in the six week period.

Wheatear by Amy Lewis

From Saturday in to Sunday, high pressure is forecast to build over southern Europe, in fact high pressure and very light winds are forecast to stretch all the way from North Africa to Central France, so, there is a small chance that one or two more Wheatears might make it back to the UK over the weekend, although  the south-westerly winds in the English Channel might just prevent any Wheatear that has made it that far north from making the crossing.

Met Office pressure chart for Sunday 23 February 2014

Feels like summer

As I write this on Valentine’s Day there are several reports of summer visitors on the bird information websites. These include up to six Lesser Whitethroats, four Common Whitethroats and five Swallows, with records from the south coast to Northumberland. The winter period has also seen reports of Turtle Dove, Wheatear and both Willow and Garden Warbler, not to mention scores of Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs. In fact, so far in February there have been twelve species of warbler recorded. Ok, so three of them are from the east, Yellow-Browed, Pallas’s and Hume’s, and one, Yellow-rumped, is from North America, and all probably arrived here back in late October. There are two that are resident warblers; Cetti's and Dartford. But what is interesting here is that they have, so far, all survived a British winter. Also interesting is that the last time Swallows successfully over-wintered in the UK was in 2009, during another relatively mild winter.

Turtle Dove by Sue Hunter

So, with all these ‘summer’ visitors at large in the UK it is easy to think that at least some of them might be early migrants, particularly a few of the Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs but this doesn’t seem to be the case. Most of the records are away from migration watchpoints and many of them can be traced through the winter months, having spent that time in BTO Garden BirdWatch participant’s gardens, or regularly featuring on BirdTrack lists.

Sand Martin by Andy Mason

However, it won’t be long before we do start seeing a few early migrants. Certainly by the end of February there is a very good chance of Wheatear and Sand Martin turning up, and if we do experience a few days of warm southerly airflow they could be joined by a few Swallows, and maybe even the odd House Martin. There have also been several February records of Great Spotted Cuckoo, with the earliest being found on the 14th, so if we do get the warm southerlies, who knows?

On another note, we have just heard about a Little Egret in Iceland that was ringed as a chick in Galway, this adds to other birds ringed in the UK that have been found as far away as the Azores and the Canaries, for more on these birds, please visit http://btoringing.blogspot.co.uk/ . 

Our Cuckoos are also on the move. As of 13 February three of them had completed the first leg of their mammoth journey back to the UK. For more information, and to follow them as they make their way back, please visit, http://www.bto.org/science/migration/tracking-studies/cuckoo-tracking

Spring migration getting underway – or not

There are signs that birds are on the move. During the last week, Bramblings have moved into my garden, and I know from previous years that I may well see them on a daily basis from now until early April. I also know that I get a large turnover of birds during that time – some days there are more females than males, and on other days young birds in their 1^st winter dominate. Over the course of the next couple of months over a hundred different individuals could move through the garden, almost certainly on their way to the east coast and, at some stage crossing the North Sea. So, for me, this is one of the first signs I get that spring migration is underway.

Brambling by Jill Pakenham 

In a couple of weeks time, Siskins will be doing the same; moving through the garden. I only ever see a maximum of a dozen or so birds but a couple of years ago, over a three week period in March, almost two-hundred Siskins were trapped and ringed in my garden, proving that there was a large turnover of birds.

Siskin by www.grayimages.co.uk

But what about the Sora on St Mary’s, Isles of Scilly? It was seen for the first time this year on Saturday 1 February. I say this year because it may well be the bird that was at the same site in mid-October last year. Or, could this be a bird on the move? There is a chance that it could be a new arrival – it was seen just ahead of a deep low pressure system that tracked across the Atlantic at great speed and, although it seems a little early for a Sora to be on the move, the first ones start to appear in southern USA in early March, it wouldn’t be outrageous to think that it could be an early migrant; would it?

I have seen Wheatear, Swallow and House Martin in mid-February on the Isles of Scilly, and those birds must have been on the move in early February and prone to getting caught-up in bad weather. The fact that at the time there was a warm southerly airflow that also brought my earliest ever Hoopoe to the islands obviously helped them on their way, but what if it had been a fast tracking low out of the Mediterranean that crossed the Atlantic to North America in a couple of days, unlikely I know, but in those conditions those birds could have arrived in a very different place indeed.

So, has spring migration already begun? Almost certainly. Is the Scilly Sora a freshly arrived trans-Atlantic vagrant? Who knows? It’s not impossible.