13th October

With a cool 'north-easterly' wind in the morning it wasn't surprising that there were more Redpolls of various guises seen today. 3 of them were Lesser Redpolls (2 new birds trapped and ringed, plus yesterdays was re-trapped) along with at least 9 Meally Redpolls, while a flock of 10 Redpoll sp. near the surgery may have been different from those listed above? The highlight though was a fine male 'Northern' Bullfinch near Holland House in the afternoon-will it be another influx year?  There was another small arrival of Thrushes with 108 Fieldfares and 258 Redwings, while Blackbirds are also becoming more noticeable and a couple of Chiffchaffs at Holland were both 'eastern' abietinus type birds. Another sea-watch logged 5 Sooty Shearwaters and a Common Scoter, but Fulmar numbers were much reduced with 875 passing by although the ratio of 'blue' phase birds was higher with 19 included in that total. The 2 Wood Sandpipers are still with us, 7 Jack Snipe were flushed, 2 Great Spotted Woodpeckers included another new individual and 2 Woodpigeons were the first for a while.

Lesser Redpoll

 

'Eastern' Chiffchaff