Fieldfare Invasion

If you have been birding in certain parts of the UK you won't have failed to notice the huge numbers of Fieldfares moving through. Yesterday I was doing some habitat management training with some new members of staff on a farm near Slaidburn in the Forest of Bowland. Funnily enough one of the first birds I had was a Crossbill flying over calling and then the Fieldfares arrived.

During the morning they were constantly heading west/northwest in groups of 10-50 flying low over the ground and flying very fast. How many moved through I couldn't tell as I also had to have my eyes to the ground identifying plants!

During the afternoon I came across over a thousand feeding and alighting in some hedgerows and pasture with lesser numbers of Blackbirds, Song Thrush and Redwings mixed in. It was an awesome spectacle!

 Fieldfare

I haven't 'blogged' for a few days as I haven't had anything to blog about. I had a couple of interesting sightings driving over Rawcliffe Moss on my way to work on both Monday (18th) and Tuesday (19th). On Monday I had a Water Rail walking along the side of the road adjacent to a patch of phragmites and willow carr. At more or less the same spot the following day I had a Peregrine fly over!

I called to feed at my feeding station on Wednesday but I had very little as the weather was so appalling. The forecast isn't fantastic for the next few days either. Too windy for ringing, but not windy enough for seabirds. But never mind I'll make the most of whatever the weather is.