A return to home turf, I arrived at Blackdown just before 7am - sunrise was officially 7.15am so it was barely getting light . It wasn't really misty, just very murky, and the light remained appalling all morning. However, there were obviously a large number of thrushes on site, as soon as I left the carpark, groups of
Redwing were flying out through the pines uttering their high pitched 'tseeeep'. I estimated over 300 in the morning. The number of calling
Chiffchaffs (my count was over 30) were also high as I walked along the top path of the Borden Door Valley. There was then a large flock of
50+ Siskin and a couple of
Lesser Redpoll, with several
Meadow Pipits flying over calling and as well as the Redwing several
Song Thrushes were moving. It wasn't long before I heard the 'chack' of a
Ring Ouzel and saw 3 at the top of a pine. As I walked to the bottom of Borden Door there was an obvious favoured Rowan attracting a number of Thrushes and I'd seen 7
Ring Ouzels before walking on.
Stonechat and
Dartford Warbler were on the valley sides. and another large
Redwing flock was at the top of the valley.
Several more
Meadow Pipit were flushed as I walked down the West side when more
Ring Ouzels appeared , being very flighty and calling constantly, my count soon reached 18 , then 27,and when not in a Rowan were hidden in a Pine tree or in flight and were never approachable . I was concerned that a in a straight count I'd be double-counting birds that were flying around with the
Redwing. I made my way to Cotchet Valley looking down on the number of abundant Rowans and could already see more
Ring Ouzels from the top path. At least another 14 were in the valley, also feeding in the Rowans were
Redwing, Mistle Thrush, Bullfinch and 2
Brambling and a
Woodlark were seen in flight.
As I returned to Borden Door A large number of
Ring Ouzels flew and 22 landed at the top of a Silver birch I also saw 3
Fieldfare. My count of individual birds totalled 67 but taking into account potential double-counts, I still believe conservatively there were over 40 on the site which is the most I've heard of here.
6
Crossbills flew over as I walked back to the Car Park, making it a great morning.
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| A really gloomy start to the morning. |
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| A Ring Ouzel |
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| From a distance, look carefully there are 16 ring Ouzels in this tree |
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| The light was unfortunately not good for pics |
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| There are plenty of Rowan berries for the birds |
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