GEDSER - 22nd October

Pretty much rained all day and while never really heavy it prevented any ringing through the morning; it was however a very impressive morning as thousands and thousands of birds continued to pour low over the garden with big flocks of Chaffinch, Brambling and Siskin moving through along with Redpolls, Greenfinches, Reed Buntings etc.   Thrushes were also obvious with thousands of Mistle Thrushes heading through while perhaps more impressive were huge flocks of 2-3,000 Woodpigeons wheeling around high overhead gradually plucking up courage to head south out across the sea – there was no way or time to get any counts but it was enough simply to sit back and enjoy the amazing spectacle that has been a feature of this remarkable autumn so far.

                The garden was also heaving with birds with many Chiffchaffs mixed in with more thousands of Goldcrests filling bushes and grass but again it was not just a dump of birds they were all actively and obviously migrating through and were largely gone by the afternoon.   There was also a big arrival of Dunnocks in the garden with the whole place (and often the sky as well) full of their calls but again they were largely all gone by the afternoon.

                A walk round Kroghage late morning produced more of the same with Goldcrests and Chiffchaffs moving north up the coast whizzing just past your head as they carried on regardless; there was little else there really with 2 Hawfinches and 3 Black Redstarts of note.

                Managed to open a couple of nets in the afternoon by standing next to them and extracting birds as they flew in and in just a couple of hours caught 113 new birds including 72 Robins.   Other bits seen through the day around the garden included the Great Grey Shrike still in the front hedge, a big beast of a female Peregrine chasing Mistle Thrushes around, a couple of Hawfinches and a Short-eared Owl.