At last some easterly winds have turned the ignition key for proper autumn. I was caught more unawares than I should have been. Tweets showing radar images of green and red blobs over the Low Countries yesterday evening were said to show a huge volume of birds taking off, and coming this way.
So I have little excuse for a relatively late breakfast and walk to the shop. There was no obvious activity at 08.45, and by 10.00am I was chatting away on the phone. Around that time I noticed a Whatsapp report of thrushes moving over Hollywood (near Wythall), and a few minutes later saw a few flying past the window.
Finally I donned my bins and stepped out of the front door. I'm not sure what the neighbours made of my antics for the next hour as I logged flight after flight of thrushes, mostly Redwings flying south and west. Some were barely visible to the naked eye, but most were picked up that way, or by their "seep" calls.
After an hour from 10.15 to 11.15 I had logged about 1200 birds.
My sister and brother-in-law arrived for a pre-arranged coffee, so there was a break until 12.30 when I managed to resume. Birds were still moving, but this time I only had 30 minutes to spare. The highlight was a calling Brambling, the first from the garden for about ten years.
The full list was:
Which all goes to show that given the right conditions you can have a fantastic birding experience without even leaving the garden.
Mind you, if this had been a proper birding day and I had given it the attention it deserved, a visit to any of the higher parts of the area for the whole morning would probably have been eye-wateringly good.
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