I love to make the most of the weekend. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy working for the RSPB, but you can't beat that feeling of coming in to work on a Monday morning knowing that I got out and about at the weekend, - preferably having been somewhere fabulous and seen something to keep me smiling all week!
My Saturday treats started with the surprise sight of a hunting migrant osprey off the Norfolk Coast.
For 15 minutes, the adult bird (clearly an experienced fisher) patrolled high over the beach before I finally saw it fold its wings and drop like a stone. It came up with a big fish – something tasty and salty no doubt!
There were other migrant birds from far afield around too. Later in the day I was watching a wryneck. This little woodpecker is a beautiful (but indescribable!) combination of bars, stripes and anchor marks. I’ve posted a picture I took of one last year so you get the idea if you’ve never seen one!
It was hopping around on some short grass and sidled up to rocks to whip out its long tongue and collect ants hiding in the cracks. It would have almost certainly originated from Scandinavia (they don’t nest here) and made landfall overnight on its migration.
The wryneck is one of my favourite birds that I’m lucky to see maybe just once every year.
Walking back, a barn owl was hunting right next to the path and then I noticed the tide had come right in, pushing all the waders off the mudflats and up into the air. I estimated the flocks of knot stretched for almost a quarter of a mile against the setting sun – an incredible sight. That’s a lot of birds. I reckoned about 60,000 in total.
Of course this is a great time of year for seeing big numbers of birds.
Lots of birds from garden birds to geese start to form big flocks for winter as the autumn goes on. And keep an eye on your local starling flocks as Russian immigrants join your garden regulars to create big, noisy, swirling flocks. So you don't need to go far to see amazing things this autumn.