GEDSER - 19th October

Again rain first thing but this time it lingered on and off throughout the whole day, never very heavy just enough to disrupt any ringing; we were limited to one or two nets, watched constantly, extracting birds as soon as they were caught, with this labour intensive method we managed a respectable 159 new birds.   The total included 118 Goldcrests, 20 Robins, 10 Chiffchaffs and the highlight of 3 Northern Bullfinches caught together in the afternoon.

                As soon as the heavier rain moved through around 09:00 there was an impressive movement of Finches low over the garden for a couple of hours and with them were a Woodlark, a Hawfinch, a Grey Wagtail and a few Crossbill flocks while some decent White-fronted Goose flock milled around overhead.

                A few hours birding at a couple of sites in the middle of the day produced a juvenile Black-throated Diver and a first winter Little Gull offshore at Buserup Strand with good numbers of Chiffchaffs, Goldcrests and Robins scattered along the coast before the highlights at Kroghage were a flock of 11 Northern Long-tailed Tits and a Firecrest along with 23 Tundra Bean Geese over to the west, a Grey Wagtail, a Wheatear, 7 Scaup on the pools, a Black Redstart and predictably a good spread of Goldcrests, Chiffchaffs and Robins but nothing too different.

 

Tree Sparrows and Yellowhammer