Ring for a chat

I think the Orme had a bit of Stonechat passage last weekend.  There were around 9 pairs which fueled lots of agression, chasing a perching in odd spots like in trees.  I watched at least two pairs displaying, the male turning away from the female while doing some mesmerizing tail wagging with dropped wings revealing the white side patches.  There were some whacky calls too with some mimicry thrown in i think. 

Chough were very vocal

 So today Chris and I had chance to try spring trapping but there were few migrants.  Despite this a beautiful near adult male Stonechat obliged as did a cracking male Wheatear, one of only 2 up there today. 

 Other migrants included Golden Plover heard, dozens of goldcrests, 100s Siskin over, Peregrine and Sand Martin.  There was oddly up to 20 magpie moving around, surely passing through:

It looks like the small birds have benefitted from a mild winter going by the amount of crests through.