A slightly frustrating week with the weather, mild and gradually sunnier, but with every morning sporting a thick mist, which hasn't lifter until early afternoon. So I could hear birds around, plenty of Thrushes and even an unusual Skylark and I'm sure thousands of Woodpigeons and maybe even some Hawfinches given the movement that has happened nearby , but all remaining unseen. Today was without the mist but still mild and sunny and with the clocks going back an hour, I'd persuaded Paul Bowley to come up to Black Down on the basis I though there were still thrushes around. strangely 3 Egyptian Geese flew over the house just before we left. and I could see some Woodpigeon flocks going over and a group of Redwing.
After we arrived on Black Down I'd started to regret my confidence as we walked the whole length of the site hardly seeing a bird. Just some distant Woodpigeons a handful of Redwing and a Marsh Tit. Noticeably there were no berries left which probably caused an exodus to other feeding grounds. It was only when we decided to head back and the mention of coffee, when we found a very active whitebeam tucked away which still had a number of berries and a lot of Redwing. With them we found 6 Redpoll and about the same number of Brambling. The challenge was the sun which was low and bright and hampered the viewing. We tried a different path and had a slightly better angle but needed to keep distant as the birds were being spooked easily. Mistle Thrushes and Blackbirds also dropped in, then I saw a Ring Ouzel in a pine it flew towards us and I called out, Paul thankfully got on it as it called but it flew straight into the line of the sun and landed at the top of a bush with some Redwing , we couldn't see the bird due to the light and tried to reposition ourselves but the Ouzel flew and that was the last we saw of it.
Stonechats and Dartford Warblers were around but it was otherwise very quiet. There is still a lot of leaf on the trees as no sign of temperatures much below 10c, which is unusual for late October.
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| Brambling |
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| Stonechat |
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