Thrushes and a Thorn

Well the skies didn't clear as quickly as I was expecting this morning.  I thought I was going to wake up to a sky full of stars but it was mostly cloudy!  Two hours later and it was a lot clearer, but not early enough for the busy morning of vismig I was hoping for.

As you may or may not have read here last night, yesterday was all about Song Thrush and Blackbird. Well this morning it was Redwing and Fieldfare - which was great! Not massive numbers, but throughout the morning small groups of Redwing were zipping about all over the place. Some were going through high west with the Pigeon flocks, but most were exploding out of trees and then heading off north.  I saw fewer Fieldfare, but the odd one or two were mixed in amongst the groups of Redwing.  Counted 55 Redwing and 9 Fieldfare during my couple of hours out, not a single Song Thrush though!

When the weather did clear from about 8am, Wood Pigeon flocks did start up.  Most of them were 100 - 400 in size, but I had one of 850.  All flocks were flying west basically along the coast, and I got to a total of 4,900 before I had to stop counting.  As usual a few Stock Dove were in the mix.

Have seen five different Long-tailed Tit flocks today, and sifted carefully through them all but just Goldcrests and Chiffchaffs.  I really hope there are a few more wing-barred Phylloscs in 2024 for me, I will keep trying that is for sure.

Something I didn't mention in my blog post yesterday was the Silver Y moth I stumbled upon on Seaton Beach during the afternoon.  This encouraged me to put a moth trap out last night, as a Silver Y is an immigrant species and could well be the forerunner of something special... well not for me!

There was only a small number of moths in the trap at Mum and Dad's this morning, which is to be expected at this time of year.  The only immigrants were Rusty-dot Pearls, of which there were six (with all but one of these on the wall of the house!).  The non-immigrant moths in the trap were four November Moths, one Chestnut and my first Feathered Thorn for the garden, which was nice...

Not at all rare, the fact I haven't recorded one before is likely a reflection of my trapping habits, I very rarely trap later in the year than September.  This is also why I still need December Moth for the garden!

 

 

Might try again with the vismig in the morning, definitely will not be trying the moth trap again though.  Well maybe not until I have a chance of December Moth...