This year I just knew we were in for a quiet spring passage, those who know me will say that was due to my natural pessimism, but I couldn't see how anything was going to match last year !! Added to this was the fact that one of the Blows stalwarts had chosen to be out of the country for three of the prime weeks - who was going to find things ?
As it turned out the passage was not at all bad with the usual interesting number fluctuations that keep us all guessing.
Strangely, this year the first passage migrants to appear were a couple of Black Redstart. Found on 20th March on the western facing slope they stayed faithful to a very small area for most of their week long stay. For the first couple of days these birds were quite visible - a trait that did not last, towards the end of the week you could search for some time before spotting one of them. As these birds left others arrived to replace them, albeit on the more usual area around the paddocks, this meant we actually had birds on site continually from the 20th to 30th with two birds seen on all but the 27th and 30th. We quite often record later Black Redstarts but this year none were seen outside March.
Having been, unusually, pipped for their vanguard status the first Wheatear was seen on 21st. Again we saw the pattern of an early passage followed by a lull and them a second surge, this year though the numbers involved struck us as low with the highest single day count only reaching 11. This was probably the most interesting thing of the 1999 passage and I wonder was a low turn-out noticed elsewhere around the county?
Time and time again the site regulars are harangued about invisible Ring Ouzels by visiting birders and we continually give out advice about where and how to look for this tricky thrush. This year for the first time the Blows Downs web site was on-line throughout the passage so that the itinerant contingent could keep an eye on things from afar. The first reports of the year came on 25th and 26th March, these were followed on 8th and 10th of April and then the regular late surge from 19th to 29th April. This last pack included a very mature female with white speckling on her head, first seen on 23rd she stayed until 29th and was generally to be found around the chalk pit area. These individually identifiable birds give the proof that some birds do stop and refuel on Blows and with the evidence of these it is then not such a daring assumption to claim that the birds that stay very faithful to particular areas for a few days are probably also lingering to refuel.
Other odd reports from March included a Snipe seen to land in the paddocks, a Buzzard being harried off the site by crows on 26th and a Golden Plover overhead also on 26th. Was this last bird a stray involved in the large movement noticed at the end of the month in the Blunham area ?
April started with two Swallows moving through on 1st and on the same the day the first descending song that indicates a returned Willow Warbler was heard. Once in, these little green jobs quickly become the most obvious song and are present in large enough numbers to allow most visitors plenty of chances to watch them sing.
This year was a good one for Common Redstart, the first was seen on 7th but the main period to see them was between 16th and 28th with the peak being five on 21st. Considering how striking the males are visually it can be very frustrating searching for them as they possess the ability to make themselves really elusive. On a couple of days the only people to actually see one were the ringers when they found birds in their nets.
A Whitethroat was singing in an unusual area at the north-eastern end of the slope for two days on 11th and 12th April, this was the first record of what turned out to be a good year. There seemed to be more of these trans-Saharan migrants on the northern slope than normal this year while the western facing slopes had their normal healthy populations singing their scratchy songs.
For me personally the best day of the month was 13th, I was at the western end of the site when I noticed a Lesser Black-backed Gull flying north - this is the main gull species we see after the start of April but I raised my bins to confirm the identification and found myself regarding an Osprey !!! This is a species I had long considered a possible over Blows and now I was looking at one, a quick sprint took me to the brow of the slope from where I watched as the bird continued north out of sight, as it passed over Don Green's house the question occurred to me should I ring him ? Decision quickly made - no just watch and enjoy - sorry Don. I lowered my binoculars and realised the bird had flown directly over two of the other site regulars as they scanned the paddocks. Neither had looked up at the critical moment and both were rather cheesed off when I told them what had happened some minutes later.
Two days later the same pair were further "gripped" when I found a Firecrest in the hedge between the paddocks and the main slope, they arrived about ten minutes after the bird had slipped away from view. On both occasions there was only one other observer and as it was the same chap on both days at least he and I could congratulate each other.
We had an early sighting of Turtle Dove this year when an individual was found on Cottage Bottom Fields on 23rd April, this species only came back to breed on the site last year after a considerable absence so the return was an event that had been hoped to continue the recovery in a small way. Unusually there were subsequent sightings on the main northern facing slope as well as the western side.
Yellow Wagtail records were few and far between this spring with the first I know of not coming until 24th although there were a few subsequently - is this another species that numbers are crashing on ?
The 24th also noted the first Whinchat, with a cracking male keeping company with a group of ten Wheatear on the slope above the paddocks. This was pleasing as a fair bit of effort had gone into removing the invading scrub from this particular slope and the sight of a flock of Wheatear running around it felt like a fitting reward. Whinchat continued into May, generally single birds were seen in the more usual setting of the paddocks.
This years Bird Club visit was on the 25th but of the 30 or so people who turned up for the walk only one other person saw the party of three Curlew that passed over as I was just about to join the crowd at Skimpot Road and none of us heard the years only Grasshopper Warbler which "reeled" for a couple of jammy gits (I know who you are !!!) above the alley into Jeansway. Despite that a successful morning was managed with Ring Ouzel, Sedge Warbler and Wheatear providing highlights.
The month finished with the first Hobby and first Garden Warbler seen on the 29th. Into May and things usually start to slow down, this year the first Swift was seen on 5th and there were more sightings Hobby and the commoner warblers. Whinchat did well though with three seen on 9th and further records on 11th, 14th with the final spring record coming on 21st and effectively drawing to an end the coverage for another year.
As expected it was not a match for the dizzy heights of 1998, but it was not bad !! What will the new century bring I wonder ?
Rob Dazley
Dunstable, Beds.