Where have all the Stonechats gone?

There has been a thread on the London Birders Forum in recent days about the dearth of Stonechats at many London sites with some traditioanl areas having none so far this winter. This pattern has been repeated at Rainham Marshes this season with only a handful of birds on the circuit and probably under ten on the whole site. Our peak month is October and early November and we have nearly reached a staggering 50 before now and a regular wintering population of about 20. As seen from earlier posts we have had confirmation that at least one of our birds came from Norfolk but certainly did not stay and is probably in France by now so perhaps the British birds that normally stay have just kept on going this year rather than linger with us or did the cold winter snap this time last year kill off more birds than we thought?

Anyway... have a stunning shot of a wind blown male by Basil Thornton to cheer you up!