A peek out of the window this morning suggested that a day of bush-bashing might be worth a try.
Indeed, the completely still, misty and drizzly conditions felt pretty good for searching for a posh passerine, but in the end, it wasn't to be.
Quite a few off-passage songbirds were around early on, with around 50 fieldfares, 30 redwings, 60 (mainly 1st-Winter) blackbirds, 20 song thrushes and a few mistle restless in the copses and hedgerows, and an increase on recent robin numbers.
Two lesser redpolls and small parties of redwings and blackbirds were to seen to spill skywards from Freeman's Wood, which had around 10 goldcrests later in the day.
A blackcap, a chiffchaff and 2 goldcrests were at Stodday.
The visibility soon improved, with sunny spells and freshening winds. From ten till two a steady but light passage of Skylarks occurred, with an estimated 30 per hour overhead, Southeast.
355 pink-footed geese in five skeins also pushed through SouthWest in this period.
A shoveler was on the Wildfowlers Pools and eleven gadwalls and five wigeon were on Freeman's Pools.
Four migrant hawkers and two common darter dragonflies were out in sheltered spots.
1 comment:
Hello Dan
Hello Dan
This reminds me that we had a Blackbird this morning which misled the trainee ringer in the hand. It was an extreme example of a north European adult male with minimum yellow visible on the bill through all the dark suffusion.......yet all the flight feathers were a uniform jet black, hence adult, backed up by tail-feather shape
Regards
Pete
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