More Pigs and Red Kite

It felt a lot cooler this morning, and with clear blue skies when the day broke I made time for an hours vismig watch from Beer Stables at 06:50.  

Basically it was all Wood Pigeons and Jackdaws again, which is great to see, but the lack of small birds is getting really concerning now. Yes I am seeing Chaffinches, other finches and Skylarks passing over during all of my recent vismig watches, but not at all in the numbers I would expect for late October.  For example small birds recorded this morning were limited to just: 28 Chaffinch, 24 Goldfinch, 10 Linnet, 7 Redwing, 5 Skylark, 4 alba Wagtail, 1 Blackbird and 1 Siskin.  I can only hope there are a lot more birds still to come in from Scandinavia? 

I did have a very unexpected big bird come through though, on a flight path that took it directly over my head and probably over a mile in land when I lost sight of it...

My orginal thought was 'what is that!?'

It was high up as well

A Great Northern Diver!  Not a species I usually have to ID from underneath here!

I recorded 17,600 Wood Pigeons by the time I left, along with 62 Stock Dove in the closer flocks and in their own little groups, with presumably many more of the latter in the distant flocks too.  Flocks were passing on a broad front, but the largest flocks were just out over the sea up high.  Also had 380 Jackdaws fly west.

A Wood Pigeon leading five Stock Dove

 

Later in the day it was nice to see a Red Kite fly high east over the town, just after 3pm.  Not a regular species in any month of the autumn, so not expected today at all. Awful photo pic below...

Good binocular views confirmed it was just a Red one!

 

Have also heard on the local WhatsApp group that the Rose-coloured Starling roosted in the Colyford Common area again this evening (thanks Tim C) having been seen on a couple of occasions in Whitford today.  Still not seen it around my house again despite looking, which makes the find feel even jammier to be honest!!