Sunday 18th October - Blackdown Fog

An update covering 2 weekends and 2 visits to Blackdown. On the 10th my early morning visit was pretty much thwarted by Fog. There was no forecast for it, and when I arrived it seemed confined to the lower valleys but by the time I'd walked from the car to the main path it was a pea-souper that only got worse by 10am rather than clearing.

I saw a measly 9 Meadow Pipit, 3 Redwing and 2 or 3 Dartford Warblers, but stood around for quite a while with Dave trying to talk the fog into lifting. We thought we heard a Ring Ouzel but that was as good as it got.
The following day at home the surprise were 8  Song Thrush flying in a Westerly direction with still a single Chiffchaff and Treecreeper with the commoner birds, a Pied Wagtail and Meadow Pipit flying over were noted . Then on Wednesday 14th I had an hour at home before going to the airport for work and in that time an estimated 150+ Redwing flew West in groups of 20+ along with 5 late Swallows and 2 House Martin.

My second attempt at Blackdown was this Sunday 18th. Fog was forecast in the area throughout the morning but I went anyway ...and guess what , it wasn't that bad, although it was rather gloomy to start. There were at least some birds to look at. A large Fieldfare flock dominated, my first of the Winter,  with ca75+ birds flying between the Rowans which still had a few remaining berries, most have already been stripped so I would think the remaining fruits have a life of a week at best with all the thrushes around. Amongst the Fieldfare were around 20 Redwing and 2 Ring Ouzel. At one point the same Rowan had 5 Brambling and 4 Bullfinch also feeding on the berries. In total I had at least 7 Brambling, all in flight together but I heard at least one other. 19 Meadow Pipit were counted, 4 Lesser Redpoll seen in flight and a Woodlark heard flying over were other highlights. Goldcrest could only be counted as plenty, and a couple of Chiffchaffs in the Tit flocks , but nothing more exciting despite a reasonable amount of scrutiny and of the larger variety 1 Sparrowhawk, 1 Kestrel, 1 Raven and 2 Jays.

Continuing the theme at home I heard a Brambling calling from the Oaks but couldn't locate it, maybe a decent Winter for them is in prospect ?




Dawn looked promising - but then the fog came in

THe foggy dew made the cobwebs look spectacular

and then it became more foggy !

A week later you could see the birds - Ring Ouzel

Plenty of Wrens on the site

Only a few Rowan berries remain

A few Fieldfares with a Ring Ouzel

Mostly at the tops of the pines when not feeding



A tree full of Fieldfare