- A bright and sunny morning with perfectly clear skies on a NW>3 at 4 degrees. By 0930 hrs the clouds had rolled in bringing full cloud cover and then rain. By late afternoon the weather was atrocious with a strong NE>5 driving horizontal rain across the water and fog on the moor.
- What looked like being a big thrush day was soon thwarted when the rain and low cloud appeared, but before then Fieldfares were moving over to the far west of me along with Redwings but no large flocks. Unusual for Chaffinch movement at this site but a good count with a small group of Brambling trailing behind them.
- By late afternoon in heavy rain and low cloud it was a quick walk along the bank and then, thanks to the birding god for inventing hatchbacks, it was stand behind the shelter of the car and watch over the water . Conditions were ideal for a passing Tern, Gannet or some other maritime species but these were only in my dreams and had to make do with Black Headed gulls.
- Amazingly, before I left, Fieldfare and Redwing starting coming over for about 30 minutes very low over the water and struggling in the wind and rain before disappearing into the mist to the >NW proving that if the weather had held we would have had a mega thrush day.
- VISIBLE MIGRATION a.m.
- 5 Brambling..............>NW
- 26 Chaffinch............>NW
- 13 Mipits.................>S
- 36 LBB...................>NE
- 137 Fieldfare..........>NW
- 29 Redwing............>NW
- 83 Woodpigs..........>S
- VISIBLE MIGRATION p.m.
- 93 Fieldfare............>NW
- 12 Redwing............>NW
- 23 BH gull.............>SE
- PRESENT
- 12 Canada
- 3 Greylag
- 2 Reed Bunting
P.S. I never noticed this but DJS just sent a text saying he likes the header photo of the Grey Wagtail stood on one of my dogs heads. Its surprising the shapes that are made with driftwood.
BS