Has anyone seen any yet? I often see flocks of them flying over our rural office in the autumn / winter but not spotted any yet!
Can't wait for them to arrive in Shropshire! Determined to get decents pics of them this year!!
"All weeds are flowers, once you get to know them" (Eeyore)
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Great news ND!! Still not seen any here but then I'm in an office all day (although I do spend a fair amount of time looking out of the window...)
Woooooooohoooooooooooo! Just seen a small flock fly past the office window!! :-) :-)
Rockwolf said: Woooooooohoooooooooooo! Just seen a small flock fly past the office window!! :-) :-)
Glad to hear they're back, small feeding flock on the local patch at the weekend, also noticable that blackbird numbers have increased in the same area, clearly migrants as at the moment they are much more timid than the ones in the garden, I am sure that as winter grips us they will start to frequent the gardens.
Even our Little Egret has returned to the river (assume it was one of the 3 that was about last winter), haven't seen it all summer.
"Feed the birds, tuppence a bag" Mary Poppins
Walking this morning towards the Callow from Pontesbury/Minsterley Road and we saw a flock of approx 30 Redwings flying over - AT LAST!!! They were all chattering as they went - FANTASTIC!
That's great Lucy! I've seen a few more smaller flocks about! Looking forward to seeing them a bit more!!
The first big wave of fieldfares were reported this morning, with c.3,000 through Holme NWT in Norfolk in a 15 minute period. Very late to appear in anything other than small groups this autumn, they're now on their way.
Possibly accompanying them will be occasional, straggling ring ouzels on their way to their Mediterranean wintering grounds - it has been a very poor autumn for these charismatic thrushes.
ATB,
Darren
Leave only footprints, kill only time.
Most mornings during autumn, I visit a site close to home in Cambridgeshire called Croydon Hill. From this elevated vantage point, I stand and scan along the ridge and valley for birds visibly migrating (known to hard-core enthusiasts as ''vis-migging'')
This morning's 'vis-mig' exercise was truly mind-blowing. Between 6:30 and 8 o'clock, I counted 1,466 fieldfare, 1,073 redwing and 213 chaffinch migrating west through the valley (amongst others). I even had two migrating dunnocks!
I must have missed thousands of birds, because they were moving along the ridge and through the valley in prodigous numbers and at various heights and distances - I really did need eyes in the back of my head!
Seven or eight miles along the ridge, four colleagues were also counting. With their extra eyes, they counted 2,808 fieldfare and 2,463 redwing, so we had remarkably similar rations of fieldfare to redwing.
They were still moving when we left, so if you have a chance, get to some high ground and soak up the truly awe inspring spectacle of migration. To think, most of these birds were somewhere over the North Sea last night!
If you need to practice your count estimate skills, you can do that here, but a warning - it is highly addictive!
Best wishes,
Wow! That's fantastic Darren! How is the best way to tell the difference between redwings and fieldfares in flight? On the ground, I can differentiate them due to the fieldfares grey head and I know that redwings do flash red in flight in the right light but are there any other pointers please?
And another question! How do you know that the flock of chaffies (or any other bird for that matter) were migrating, and not just moving about in their daily foraging activities?
Think I'll leave that link 'til later! Lol!! With an 'addicitve' warning like that I'm bound to get hooked!
Hello MarJus,
The two species have different silhouettes and flight actions. Fieldfares are larger and appear rather chunky, pot-bellied and long-tailed in comparison to redwings, which are altogether more compact and short-tailed.
Redwings also fly with with faster wingbeats, whereas fieldfares can be quite 'stuttering' and more 'flappy' in flight. The pale rump and underwing of fieldfares is another good identification feature.
Best wishes
Rockwolf said: Wow! That's fantastic Darren! How is the best way to tell the difference between redwings and fieldfares in flight? On the ground, I can differentiate them due to the fieldfares grey head and I know that redwings do flash red in flight in the right light but are there any other pointers please? And another question! How do you know that the flock of chaffies (or any other bird for that matter) were migrating, and not just moving about in their daily foraging activities? Think I'll leave that link 'til later! Lol!! With an 'addicitve' warning like that I'm bound to get hooked!
**Excellent**! Thank you Darren! That's very helpful! Maybe once I've got used to working out which is which, I might even get to count them!! Lol!