Redwings... Thousands of them! 18-10-2008

Ogden Vis Mig 7.30-10.00am
Wind WSW F4, Overcast at first, sunny intervals later.

Ogden was my birding choice this morning. I knew there were going to be plenty of Redwings as I could hear loads of them going overhead in the dark as I left home. Arrived at Ogden at 7.30am and immediately started seeing flocks of Redwing typically in groups of 50 to 200 or more. This stream of birds continued on to about 8.30am when it tailed off to nearly nothing until about 9.30am when groups of up to 100 or so started up again. Eventually left Ogden at 10.00am.

Total Redwing count was 2360 but I will have missed many birds as I was in amongst the trees alot. There were plenty of Fieldfare about too. Some mixed in with the Redwings and others in single species groups up to 30 birds. Total Fieldfare count was 410. The fieldfares were easy to pick out in the mixed flocks by their larger size alone. On their own, it was more tricky but I was able to see the grey rump and white flash of the underwing on the birds that came in close.

The thrushes were all moving in a SW, W to NW direction typically low to the ground (less than 50m). Only a few groups were high up.

Chris King