Saturday 12 October 2013

The week that was

Another week over and as normal I could only manage a couple of visits during the week but did see another Wheatear on a fence post and the first of the winter visitors  with a flock of 18 Redwing which passed through on Thursday. Away from the patch whilst at football training watching my son I saw a flock of 7 Swallow belting southwards and a flock of 40 plus Pied Wagtail.
So having seen on the internet the massive arrivals of birds on the east coast on Friday and the prevailing winds on Saturday I was on the patch on Saturday early. As I stepped out I heard a Pied Wagtail pass over and a great surprise was a BADGER  which ran up the lane amazing ,especially with the cull taking place locally.
We passed up the lane and realised it was quiet , just too quiet then we heard the hunting horns and lo and behold once again the hunt was out again cubbing but this time I just walked across the fields with Willow on the lead and stood and stared at them through my binos ,they realised I was not going any where and eventually moved out the area. They are breaking the law plain and simple.
The wind was a very strong northerly , and it soon became obvious that this had brought with it a bit of vis mig as they say. Redwings passed over from the east and 227 plus were counted in two hours as well as a single flock of 65 Fieldfare from high eastwards. Around 200 Starling were about and a total of 8 Mistle Thrush were obvious migrants including a flock of 6.
The Meadow Pipit passage has now dwindled at the moment only 4 been seen today , Pied Wagtail numbered 9 and 18 plus Skylark were on pasture.
The back up crew consisted of 30 plus Stock Dove, Greater Spotted Woodpecker, 80 plus Jackdaw, and a couple of Buzzard. Lets see what tomorrow brings , a Yellow Browned Warbler would be nice although I have just seen that at Falsterbo in southern Sweden 250,000 Wood Pigeons passed over yesterday so something like that would be nice, still you can dream !