VizMig

A visit to the Kench at the bottom of Hayling Island yesterday was highlighted by the visible migration going on for the first 2 hours after dawn. I had heard about the huge numbers of woodpigeons that migrate along the coast at the end of October/early November, and this was the first time I had seen it. Many flocks of several hundred birds worked their way westward - a farmers nightmare of course!
not that these were the only birds spotted - Redwing, Brambling, Jackdaw, Siskin, Redpoll, and even a few Swallows. A tremendous sight to see so many birds on the move, with a background of gently calling Brent Geese in the harbour behind.

Sudden arrivals

Of course just mentioning something means the opposite will occur!

Today 16 Teal flew overhead - heralding the expected frosts at the weekend no doubt,

Mild Weather

Mild weather has meant a lack of winter visitors so far.

Down the meadows I have seen a solitary Teal and today a male Shovelar which was rather nice. Snipe seem in short supply as well - with only one or two seen at a time.

Last week a Goshawk was chasing a woodpigeon - presumably the same bird that the visiting Treshnish group saw prior to the excitement of a Great White Egret.

The flock of Linnets and Goldfinches that numbered 200 on the down a couple of weeks ago has now dwindled down to 40.

Curlew

In spite of helping catch shore birds on the Solent for some 14 years a Curlew has always evaded me.
So on my first outing this autumn the good news is we caught 2! I extracted the first out of the cannon net and was amazed to find it already had a ring - and not just any ring - a Belgium one - so a foreign control (see photo). So after recording the ring details we added colour rings so it can be readily identified again in the field, and then released it.

Theres a short video of it flying off here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5MA1eDb5Vk


The other bird was unringed and so I finally got my ringing tick!