A walk along the river this morning looked initially unpromising with high water levels and little sign of birds but a flock of around 200 Redwings, looking fresh in, were my first significant numbers of the autumn.
My first returning Fieldfares were also seen today with a number of loose flocks probably totalling around 250 birds in total.
With the river so high I was surprised to see two Green Sandpipers
but they seemed to be feeding well away from the water. Two Kingfishers were also
here plus a pair of Mute Swans, two Little Egret and a single Goosander.
As I walked up to the river bend by Swalefields Farm, a
group of five Whooper Swans flew across west, only at tree top height but I lost
them behind the rookery copse before I got chance to photograph them. Surprisingly
these were my first of the year.
I had heard the odd distant call of geese as I walked along and
round this river bend I picked up a large flock of Pinkfeet, a few fields back
on the opposite bank. Although flyovers are annual now it is still rare to get
flocks on land in the parish. It wasn’t easy to count them given the distance
and rather gloomy conditions but there were certainly over 200 birds, an
excellent total.
To finish off a productive couple of hours I heard a singing Corn Bunting and a flock of ten Siskin flew over, only the second record of Siskin this year.
I spent the last week in Scilly, the first time I have been
with my wife since before the kids were born. It was a great week with some surprisingly
good weather and a few good birds thrown in including the Blackburnian Warbler which
very decently hung around until we got there. I had good views of this lovely
bird but my photos were awful. I did, however, manage shots of a few other
visitors…
Black Redstart
Wilson’s Snipe
Red-rumped Swallow
Ring Ouzel
Jack Snipe
