Sunday November 1

The forecast fog was dispersing as I arrived, and by the time Dave appeared we were faced with the prospect of a bright morning and a very light southerly breeze.

We quickly located a pair of Stonechats at Netherstead, unusually one was quite vocal. There seemed to be a lot of finches about, in particular at the south end. We therefore drove down the track and scanned the Linnets and Redpolls on the wires and in the hedges. Among them we found a year tick, a female Brambling. Hallelujah.

Brambling

It was difficult to estimate the numbers of each finch species present because the flock was mixed and  mobile, but I would say there were about 200 Linnets, at least 25 Redpolls, about a dozen Greenfinches, about 20 Chaffinches and a similar number of Goldfinches. We later discovered a second Brambling, this time a male.

Later in the morning a bank of fog rolled in, and by the time we got to the Flash field, its occupants were ghostly apparitions in the mist. We nevertheless counted 61 Snipe, four Green Sandpipers, eight Teal, and five Lapwings.

After failing to kick up any unusual species from the strip field we ended back at Netherstead were the female Stonechat was still present.

Stonechat

Arguably the most remarkable aspect of the day was the fact that we didn't see a single raptor, the lack of Kestrels being particularly surprising.