The Redwings have arrived! With 10 venturing down the Piddle Valley yesterday, it was only a matter of time before the rest got going and this morning flocks of between 50-150 were logged at several sites. This isn’t quite the floodgates being opened, rather the first casual observers in a newly opened discount store. It starts off fairly calm, until before you know it the masses arrive and carnage ensues. Poole Harbours peak thrush passage tends to be the latter part of October and in the right wind conditions can see big numbers of Redwing, Song Thrush, Fieldfare and Blackbird track across certain areas, most notably the harbour mouth, but also across the top of Arne, through the Corfe Gap and up (and down) the river valley’s. This morning flocks were passing over urban and rural areas so be sure to look out and up when you first get up to see if you can catch the last of the nights passage before birds settle down on the ground for the day. Now’s also the best time to start heading out into your gardens at night, anytime after dark and try listening for Redwing passing over. This is known as noc-mig (nocturnal migration) and we’ll be doing a video about this soon. Also today an Osprey was roosting on the north shore of Brownsea at dawn which was just visible from Baiter. At Lytchett Fields the Grey Phalarope was still present and a Pochard was out in the bay. Crossbills passed over the Piddle Valley (18), Lytchett Bay (2) and Studland (11). There are also currently 9 different Marsh Harrier in the harbour, spending most of their day around the Wareham Channel, Middlebere area and 2 Merlin were on Hartland. The Great White Egret was in Middlebere again and the harbour seems to be littered with Stonechats currently with counts of 5-10 at multiple sites.
Below is an example of thrush migration we recorded at dawn back in 2015 up on Ballard Down. No matter how many times we hear Redwing, the first autumn birds always get our hearts racing!
Redwing & Fieldfare, calls of arriving migrants – Glebelands, Poole Harbour 06/11/15
Male Stonechat – Middlebere
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