Nocturnal goings on

A couple of Birding friends over the last couple of years have been carrying out night time recording to see what is passing overhead whilst they have their heads on the pillow.  Between them they have had some very good, even surprising, results. For instance one heard Spotted Crake in the Wareham Meadows, more recently recorded an Ortolan Bunting flying over his house.  So in a quest to enlarge my own garden list I have set up my little digital recorder to my Parabolic reflector (dish) and gave it a go.

So on the night of the 25th September I set up my little system recording from 22:00hrs and recorded through the night until around 07:00hrs next morning.  So over the next couple of days I managed to review the recording and noted the various species sounds that were recorded in the period.

It was not a surprise living by Lytchett Bay that gulls, waders and duck were the common sounds heard during the night. I also recorded the erie calls of Fox and the even more almost horror film wails of rutting Sika Deer out on the marsh around the bay somewhere.

So the bird calls recorded over the nine hours were Wigeon, Mallard, Red and Greenshank, Curlew, Oystercatcher, Herring Gull, Robin, Wren.  The sounds that were more interesting were Tawny Owl, Moorhen and Water Rail.  The only two species that were most probably migrants was a couple of flight calls of Song Thrush going over head, its always hard to tell at this time in autumn if they were local birds moving about in the dark or true migrants.  The other which was definitely a migrant was a Coot which for Lytchett bay is some what a rarity.  It turned out to be the hundred and fiftieth species to be recorded in the bay area this year. A pretty good start I think so can't wait until the next opportunity.