A quick scoot around the patch this morning rewarded me with with excellent counts of bigger stuff, but small birds harder to come by and very little in the way of visible migration.
It was inevitable that Wheel Lane would delay me again because whilst the main flock of pink-feet weren’t there, the swans and Greylag were. In fact the numbers of both rather surprised me with 235 Greylag and 210 Whooper Swan. I thought last week the Greylag numbers were high, but now separated from the wilder pink-feet, the more confiding Greylag were today near the gate with a single Canada Goose. The Whoopers ranged across the flooded stubble and in small groups gradually took off inland, leaving 30 or so birds on the pool, until the shooters arrived that is.
I walked from Fluke Hall to Ridge Farm and back without seeing a lot, 170 Wood Pigeons, 2 Little Egret, 5 Skylark, 7 Meadow Pipit, 14 Tree Sparrow, 3 Dunnock, a single Reed Bunting and a Kestrel. The wood itself seemed particularly quiet apart from the titmice families and Woodpigeons crashing through the treetops. As others have remarked recently, where are all the Blackbirds? Certainly not here or at Lane Ends anyway.
Between Lane Ends and Pilling Water I managed 40 Teal, 2 Little Egret, another Kestrel, a male Sparrowhawk, 1 Jay, 2 Meadow Pipit and 8 more Skylark. At the car park a studied listen and watch produced single calls from on high of Brambling, Siskin and Twite, but more than a few Chaffinch. The pools here are now devoid of any wildfowl except the tame Mallard, with no Tufted Duck, Goldeneye, or even Little Grebe to brighten the scene.
It would seem a shame to have taken so many pictures of Meadow Pipits during October and then not to share a few of them here.I know they are a common species but they are always worth a look and a portrait.
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