GEDSER - 7th October

Heavy drizzle turning into light rain on occasional prevented any ringing until around 10:00 but the garden was full of birds in the classic autumnal conditions with the highlights being a calling Yellow-browed Warbler and the first Ring Ouzel of the autumn.  

Despite the drizzle and continuing very strong winds more tens of thousands of birds were pouring low over the garden producing another awesome autumn spectacle; they were again dominated by Finches with huge flocks of Chaffinches, Bramblings and Siskins heading east with Reed Buntings, Meadow Pipits, Redpolls etc. in smaller numbers.   Unlike yesterday there were hundreds of Thrushes also moving through with big mixed flocks of Redwings, Song Thrushes, Fieldfares and Mistle Thrushes with a few Blackbirds all around the garden; not that much was picked out in amongst the masses but there was a Tree Pipit, a Woodlark and a Grey Wagtail along with single Merlin and Rough-legged Buzzard.

There were still big flocks of wildfowl on the move including 15+ Tundra Bean Geese flying around the garden in the early morning drizzle while the big flock of 1,500+ Barnacle Geese were still on the edge of town while big flocks were still heading south; at least 200 Cranes also moved through.

We managed to open some nets by mid-morning and caught 69 new birds including a Tree Pipit and a Reed Bunting before an hour’s look at Bøtø in the afternoon produced the usual array of good birds including a few waders with 78 Dunlin, 13 Grey Plover, 2 Spotted Redshank, 5 Ringed Plover and 5 Curlew, a Great Grey Shrike, 2 Great White Egrets and big, impressive flocks of 2,000+ Barnacle and 300+ White-fronted Geese flying around as they were constantly flushed by 3 Rough-legged Buzzards, 3 Hen Harriers (with an adult male), a Merlin and more often by an adult White-tailed Eagle.