Tuesday 6 February 2018

Thrushes

It was chilly yesterday morning at my survey site in west Lancs, and the cloudy conditions with a biting east-northeasterly wind didn't do anything to raise the temperature or my spirits! But some Thrushes did, well raised my spirits anyway.

Bits of field work has been done since my last visit here and some stubble has been ploughed, but a flock of 43 Chaffinches were still finding areas to feed. Woodpigeons, numbering 122, were also feeding in similar areas to the Chaffinches, but others were feeding on some wet fields.

The wet fields were where the Thrushes were and they were a pleasure to watch; 133 Fieldfares and 37 Redwings. Occasionally a few rays of sun momentarily broke through the clouds, and if the Fieldfares and Redwings were facing the right direction they were illuminated like a spot light on an actor or soloing musician on a stage! Stunning!

 Fieldfare (above) and Redwing (below). I didn't photograph any of these
beauties yesterday, so these are shots of two individuals I ringed from my 
archives.



Accompanying the Thrushes were 19 Rooks, 16 Jackdaws, 127 Black-headed Gulls, nine Common Gulls and 178 Starlings. All were taking advantage of invertebrates close to or on the ground surface because of the wet conditions.

I can't imagine many wet conditions for a few hours tomorrow morning at my next survey site as it is forecast to be cold tonight, and a quick look at my BBC weather app shows that it will be hovering around -5 celsius! I must remember to get out my fleece lined winter seawatching trousers!

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