Having said goodbye to the last Gunnerside swallow on the 10th Oct it is now the tern of the winter visitors to show their faces. Most noticeable have been the huge flocks of fieldfare all around the village. Conservatively I would estimate 1000+ birds particularly in the fields and bushes to the west of the village. In amoungst were quite large numbers of starling (100/200)and the odd mistle thrush. I would have expected a few redwing but did not actually ID any. With our cottoneaster laden with berries it wasn't long before a few brave fieldfares even made it in to the garden although to be honest the hawthorn bushes are so full of berries I am surprised they bothered. I noticed last night that there are lots of waxwing reports coming in so here's hoping a few hitch a ride with these thrush flocks and pay a visit "up dale"!
Other birds yesterday included a very vocal raven playing around over the house, an early morning (5.30am) tawny owl "Kirricking" very loudly through the bedroom window and some noisy red grouse which appear to have so far avoided the guns up on the pasture. On the feeders we have all the usual suspects blue and great tits, starling, greenfinch, chaffinch, goldfinch by the dozen or more, wren, pheasant, blackbird, dunnock and a friendly robin which had to be rescued from the garage after he tried to raid the bird food stocks!!
The meadow pipits and pied wags that were all around the house up to 2 weeks ago now seem to have disappeared off to warmer clims - not surprising since we had quite a sharp frost Sunday and Monday am.
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