This morning (Sunday) another early morning walk. It was a brisk southerly wind and mostly overcast although mild. It was very quiet, I started at the reservoir track end, with a the resident rather pale Common Buzzard and hearing some Siskin and Goldcrest, and seeing Stonechat on the heath, but very little else as I walked various paths, I heard more Goldcrest, which showed a noticeable increase from the previous week and saw a few Chiffchaff but overall it was fairly disappointing, with the wind seemingly keeping things low. I spent a little time scanning at the southern point with nothing until I started returning when a group of 30+ House Martins flew South followed by another 20+ then another 10+ , also a single Pied Wagtail flew over, then a Grey Wagtail (with all wagtails here being migrants). A bit further back up the track I saw a thrush flying behind some pines and through I hear a 'chack', the bird seemed to land in a silver birch that was out of view and so I repositioned myself and saw a Ring Ouzel, briefly as it then flew out. I walked further round the tracks and got to an open area that I thought the bid must be feeding in at which point I heard it call again and then found the bird in a Whitebeam and got the scope on it. It was an immature bird with nice scalloping on the flanks but otherwise quite pale with not much of a crescent showing. There were some Carrion Crows occupying the same Whitebeam, which it obviously had discomfort with. It seemed to feed for a bit then fly out to a pine and repeat the process. The first Ouzel of maybe many this autumn as the Whitebeams are full of berry crop. A couple of Ravens and a Kestrel were added to the list before returning home.
At home there was a large gathering flock of House Martins, at one point with over 100 visible and 2 Hobby were seen, no doubt with hirundine on the lunch menu. Later on a few Swallows seemed to join in.
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| Whitebeams on Blackdown. |
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