Saturday 13 October 2012

Migration Magic!

I was out quite early this morning driving around the lanes in search of Owls but with no luck so I drove over to Reculver and parked up by the towers. As It got light I walked on down to Coldharbour and walked the bushes along the embankment before returning back the way I had come. It turned out to be a very good morning with plenty of migration in action and a thrill to see. Birds noted were 72 Redpoll west, 4 Chiffchaff, 1 Kestrel, 10 Pied Wagtail, 3 Little Egret, 10 Meadow Pipit, 1 Kingfisher, 10 Redshank, 2 Oystercatcher, 1 Teal, 6 Rock Pipit west, c50 Linnet, 20 Cormorant and 23 Greylag Geese in fields near Coldharbour. There was an impressive movement of hirundines west which included c4500 House Martin and c800 Swallow. Everywhere you looked they could be seen moving and it made for a nice spectacle. Despite thousands passing my camera lens, none made it passed the editing section. Other birds noted were c100 Goldfinch west, 29 Brent Geese, 2 Grey Wagtail west, 2 Stonechat, 2 Turnstone, 3 Ringed Plover, 5 Curlew, 2 Marsh Harrier, c40 Wigeon, c40 Mallard, 3 Lapwing and in the bushes at Chambers Wall were 2 Ring Ouzel which showed well sometimes but distantly. There were c70 Golden Plover, 1 Merlin, 6 Reed Bunting, 1 Whinchat almost got photographed until a bloody dog appeared and scared it off, 18 Alba Wagtail west, 2 Redwing, 3 Song Thrush, 7 Skylark, 1 Ring necked Parakeet and at the caravan bushes there were 3 Goldcrest and 1 Chiffchaff. As I left Hirundines were still pouring through so who knows the kind of number that could be passing through in the area today.The photos I did take today were pretty rubbish and binned straight away so here is a Stonechat taken earlier. I think I am getting too fussy!



11 comments:

  1. Sounds like an excellent morning, the Stonechat is superb :-)

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  2. There were plenty of birds about today marc, thats for sure, even here things eventually livened up :-)

    Trouble with photographs is that you always want the next image to be at least as good as the previous ! :-)

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  3. Beautiful image of the Stonechat Marc.

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  4. Sounds like a magical morning indeed! Your Stonechat capture is stunning!!

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  5. Wouldn't mind seeing what you call 'pretty rubbish' Marc.

    As for the Stonechat bird and image....brilliant on both counts.

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  6. Impresionate la foto un saludo

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  7. Definitely too fussy Marc! I bet there were some super shots in there and you're just too hard on yourself ! Beautiful stonechat capture!

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  8. Marc.
    Whata great day you had, terrific numbers of various bird species coming and going. Nice to see things on the turn.

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  9. Great numbers seen Marc. Yep far too fusy the images you post are superb.

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