Overnight from Tuesday into Wednesday the wind had finally switched direction causing a mass movement of birds from the continent! Locally we didn't see the epic numbers of thrushes recorded elsewhere, but I did see c.50 Redwing (one flock of 30 and singles/small groups), a single Fieldfare, a Dunlin flew in and around a few times but didn't land, a Stonechat in cattle field and a few each of Siskin, Skylarks and Meadow Pipit.
Thursday morning there was low cloud/fog/mizzle and obviously less birds moving. There was 2 Wigeon and 5 Teal amongst the ducks. Redwing and Song Thrush calls seemed to be coming from every bit of cover. Between myself, John and Mike P we had well over 200 Fieldfare over with a couple of flocks totalling 180. There was at least 3 Snipe but there may have been several. Mike saw 3 in flight together, but before that there were several other sightings where I'd seen 1 three times, John had seen 1 and 2 and Mike had seen 1. John also had male Stonechat (not yesterday's bird) in the cattle field.
Thursday morning I had also seen 3 ringed Black-headed Gulls. One with a white ring and black code EMK1 - confusingly this was NOT the same seen by John on the 27th July (that was EKM1 ! ), but I think it is from the same ringing scheme in the Netherlands. One with yellow ring and black code T2VM ringed in Poland near Plock. One with only metal ring seen as other leg tucked up and not visible.
Friday morning a Hawfinch flew over low north-west near the water treatment works. Picked up on calls and seen, but only briefly. Also heard by Iain Brown who I'd just been talking to nearby. Otherwise it was fairly quiet with small numbers of thrushes blogging around and singles of Lapwing, Lesser Redpoll and Siskin over. Mike P had a male Stonechat again and there was at least 3 Chiffchaff.
 |
| Polish ringed bird on the left and Dutch (?) ringed bird on the right |
No comments:
Post a Comment