Monday 19 January 2009

After such a good day yesterday, today proved the exact opposite! My usual walk through the small holding, into the wet woods, and around the lake was pretty birdless, maybe it was the strong cold wind keeping them all quiet. The only thing of interest was a couple of GOLDCREST, and at least 4 TEAL, all seen in the wet woods.
The tree nursery was no better, and even the Barn Owl wasn't home. Migrant Alley, on the other hand was heaving with birds. STARLINGS, FIELDFARES, and REDWING all fed out on the maize stubble, which is now not stubble at all, but a waterlogged muddy field. I could only estimate thier numbers, but there were around 300 Starlings, 700 Fieldfare and 200 Redwing, all minimum numbers. Also there were around 300 mixed corvids out on the sheep pasture. A pair of LINNET, 3 YELLOWHAMMERS and a dozen SKYLARK were also noted.

Some poor pics were taken of the masses of thrush's and starlings, but they don't really show just how numerous they were


Above, a distant view of all the covids, mostly ROOKS and JACKDAWS, something spooked them up. If you enlarge the pic. maybe you can see a Raptor amongst them!
Above and below are some of the thrush's and starlings, the maize field must be 20 acres, and there wasn't a patch of ground that didn't have a group of birds on it.



10 comments:

lee said...

Hi Warren, your certainly getting good numbers,maybe you should do a competition spot the raptor,you should look for ducks down cuckoo lane, it was a river this morning.

Anonymous said...

Fair weather forecasted for the next 2 days, Warren. Maybe you`ll get back on a roll.

Warren Baker said...

Lee, it doesn't take much rain to turn Cuckoo lane into a torrent!

Dean,
the only species left that I can really expect for january is Grey lag goose. But then again.....expect the unexpected!!

Steve said...

About time you got a poor day Warren ;-)

Warren Baker said...

Thanks steve !! ;-) Lets hope it's only a poor day, and not a barren spell!!

The Bald Birder said...

You're in with a fighting chance with Waxwing for your Jan list, after events in East Malling today. Ross

Ken. said...

Sorry that you had a bad day's birding Warren.Still things,can only get better.

Steve said...

Can't always have a great day Warren. Still, Yellowhammers and Skylarks are always a good tick.

This Is My Blog - fishing guy said...

Warren: You are seeing large groups of birds.

Anonymous said...

This must have been very interesting to see and experience this many birds at once. It must stimulate and heighten one's senses.