Sunday 22 March 2015

The perils of monofilament nets

Heysham Obs
Ringed a new species for the year today (Wheatear) - the circumstances were not great, but fortunately the bird was found by Malcolm, not the local mutt/carrion crow.  It was tangled up in discarded monofilament (fishing) net - 'discarded' presumably means 'net which has been set then trashed by stormy weather and left to drift'.  So these nets can be a bit of a menace for tideline foragers and a very good reason to support your local beach clean and emphasise to them that, given a choice, its best to leave a big and obvious plastic bottle than "invisible" monofilament netting


The day was highlighted by two separate north-east-bound Common Buzzard - definitely migrants - and the continuing vocal performance by the Cetti's Warbler at Middleton


Meadow Pipit - c30 north
Stonechat - female Middleton NR
Wheatear - 2 Ocean Edge
Goldcrest - at least 5 on Heysham NR and two by Gate 38
Common Buzzard - singles NE at c1110 and 1125
Cetti's Warbler - in song regularly this morning and favouring the  vegetation around the western end of the 'fence' pond and can be easily heard from the road to sewage works near the end
Reed Bunting - flock of 7 feeding on reed mace heads at Middleton
Water Rail - 3 squealing Middleton
Teal - pair model boat pond
Gadwall - 5 (3 males) model boat pond
Tufted Duck - 4 model boat pond
Mute Swan - 2 ad & 6 2CY model boat pond
Song Thrush - 2 migrants Middleton - flew inland
Redwing - singleton Middleton flew inland