The Lincolnshire Bird Club

221012, Curchill to Brickyard lane 0720 to 0915, in poor light and dreak misty conditions
woodpigeon c 900 over, redwing several flocks c 800 total, fieldfare c 180, blackbird c 70
chaffinch c 60, robin c 80, goldcrest c 40, firecrest 1,brambling 6, jay 2, ring ouzel 2,
only warblers seen 3 chiffchaffs, flocks of thrushes seem to be arriving.
regards John.

Also very large numbers of Winter migrants at Mablethorpe this morning.
Very large flocks of Redwings (over 300) , Fieldfares and also several Brambling and Goldcrest all seen in a 10 minute walk to the North End beach through the dunes this morning.

By 1000 hrs (same area) c 450 blackbirds and 300 fieldfares c 100 chaffinch 11 brambling, c 120 robin
c 70 goldcrest,
1500 hrs fewer redwings some moving westwards, no warblers found other than chiffchaffs
4 ring ouzels 1 first year black redstart.
regards John

Most of day spent from Churchill down to southern end of NNR:

Opened the door at our Brickyard Lane house to a garden full of redwings and bramblings, Contrast this to yesterday, when only the odd redwing about, a crossbill and redpoll over the garden.

This evening, I sat in the garden under a field maple and there were up to 20 gold crests coming and going above me. Yesterday there were 4.

Impressive thrush movements up until about 1100hrs, all heading south along dunes, but then it tailed off, although more redwings and blackbirds were arriving after 1400hrs, along with very tired goldcrests, and robins. On the new outer dunes, at the south end, there were a number of robins, goldcrests, chiffchaffs and redwings in the sea couch trying to feed and very tired.

On 1 small pasture field at Sear's track between Brickyard and Crook Bank, there were over 300 thrushes, mainly redwings (90%), fieldfare and blackbirds. In the dunes here, there were about the same number again, but with a few mistle thrushes and a couple of ring ouzels

My estimates for the whole day are:
Mistle thrush, 8
Ring ouzel, >10, but probably <15. Only a couple definitely continued SW, so difficult to estimate as they moved S through the bushes with other thrushes.
Blackbird 200+
Fieldfare, 500+
Redwing 3,000+
Goldcrest 200+
Robin 100+
Brambling 40+
Twite 3
Redpoll 2
Black redstart 1
Swallow 1
Chiffchaff 8, Some of these birds were quite brown on the back and creamy coloured on the front, quite different to our recently departed summer residents
Short-eared owl 1
Jack snipe 1 in outer dunes (should have been a great snipe in that kind of locality)

Regards
Cliff

Sorry, I missed out Song thrush from my list above, which should have been 150+. I didn't include chaffinch because there are regularly 50+ in the dunes/garden, so it's difficult to include new birds in, although there were 30+ around Brickyard this evening. Similarly, goldfinches have stayed around for a couple of weeks now feeding on the seed heads ragwort that was so abundant in the dunes this year.

It's interesting to see the different counts Steve Lorand, John and I had during the morning, where I had very few blackbirds early on and yet John had 450+ in the same area at the same time I was somewhere close by to him. The visibility was so poor, so that much of the time I could only pick up those birds directly over head or close to.

At Brickyard, there is a late stubble wheat field that has attracted many birds since harvesting, including over 200 starlings each day, 60+ curlew, 200+ wood pigeons and this evening 200+redwings, but sadly I believe I can hear the tractor and plough just arriving now in the dark.

Regards
Cliff

1540 to 1730 Churchill to Rimac, similar to Churchill south with at least another 8 ring ouzels 1 redstart
1 chiffchaff, 1 stonechat, and only 1 woodcock all in poor vis and light.
regards John.

Around Sea View at first many 'waves' of winter thrushes overhead in flocks of up to around 100, all moving south. Initally Fieldfares seemed to dominate over Redwing with a few Blackbirds. Birds regularly heard in the fog but when seen they seemed disorientated, landing in bushes/trees then soon flighting off.
As morning progressed Redwings increased in numbers. Birds by now were landing in any bush with berries...particularly hawthorn gobbling up the food source, also feeding in any nearby grass fields.

Numbers very difficult to assess but conservative counts of birds over Sea View in the morning would be Fieldfare 800+ and Redwing 1500+. This evening many more Blackbirds with 80+ birds around the area.

Other sp - Brambling 1, Bullfinch 2, Song Thrush 2, Mistle Thrush 1, Robin 20+, Goldcrest 60+, Reed Bunting 2 and Swallow 3.

Local numbers of Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Tree Sparrow, House Sparrow and B&G Tits remained the same.

Peter.