Spring does not just see the arrival of summer visiting migrants from southern Europe and Africa but many birds that have wintered here start to head off too. This morning there was a wonderful cacophony of Redwings in the Cordite. It was all very eerie in the fog and I could only see shapes but I reckon that over fifty birds were quietly sub-singing to themselves with one or two going for it with gusto! Still could not outdo the Song Thrushes though! These birds will be on the way soon and often form 'talkative' flocks in the spring before they depart...
The other major mover at the moment is the humble Black-headed Gull and over the last two days, there have been a couple of thousand birds passing through in a lazy northeasterly direction. I suspect that many will be on their way back to the Baltic to breed. It has been great fun watching them drift in, have a wash and brush and then have a shake, slowly climb on a thermal till they were little dots in the blue before they disappeared from view.
Migration is not always about the obvious....
Thanks to Dawn Cowan for the gull shots today....
13-3-14
Howard Vaughan, Information Officer