Listening Stations - End April Update

Early spring passage dieing back, with later stuff still on the horizon. More swamp birds, in fact more than ever hoped for with Moorhens prominent again in the early part of the period. Thrush presence in the dark skies falling back but Golden Plover wailing in harmony and a resurgence of Oystercatcher migratory calls confirming these sp still well on the move. Curlews strong again for a spell up till mid last week with some obviously big flocks at the very edge of perception, no doubt very high in mass migratory call. Single mig calls as well from this species but the massed nocturnal events, at this time of year quite probably en-route to the mainland, quite dramatic and new to me at this location.... as is the magnitude of some of the other stuff detected. No less common late spring wader sp yet, except for Whimbrel tittering through in very marginal conditions. A morning spell of large gulls through in the early hour period of the deeply silent blank white period on the sonograms was interesting and may well resurge as the weather improves. Best period of detection rate for me, just over a week ago, a brief spell sandwiched between the rains, but all in all a disappointing period, spoilt by night after night of badly inclement weather and making the capture files almost impossible to analyse in the time available..... so perhaps more already in the pipeline when manual time available to put in and catch up with the analysis. Still another six weeks of potential spring passage to go tho..... as and before merging transparently in to the moult migs and return wader passage of early autumn, so no rest for the wicked...... Lets hope the conditions improve dramatically after the end of this week as the current forecast runs out......

Dave