Fall!

A couple of hours of easterlies last night was enough persuasion for me and my Dad to go to Holy Island today.

Before we even stopped the car we saw bushes full of thrushes. Sure enough there were hundreds of thrushes flying over and feeding on berries. It was an impressive spectacle with flocks of over a hundred Redwings and Fieldfares frequently heading west. Among these we managed to find 4 Ring Ouzels.

In the village my Dad spotted a Black Redstart in the back of the Captain's Garden, which disappeared not long after it appeared. In the afternoon we had another look in the village and there were 2 Yellow-browed Warblers and a Siberian Chiffchaff. Here's the counts...

3000+ Redwing
1500+ Fieldfare
250+ Blackbird
50+ Song Thrush
4 Ring Ouzel
5 Woodcock
11 Brambling
4 Blackcap
3 Chiffchaff
1 Siberian Chiffchaff
1 Black Redstart
1 Merlin
40 Twite
2 Yellow-browed Warbler
5 Little Egret
3 Black-tailed Godwit

Siberian Chiffchaff

Fieldfares

Brambling