A day of Finches

The day started with scraping ice off the windscreen, an unusual occurrence in early October!

There were a lot of birds about this morning, many seemed to arriving from the continent, and the largest numbers were Chaffinches, mostly flying directly inland, in contrast to the groups of Siskins that seemed to cruise along the cliffs.

Goldfinch numbers have increased but the numbers arriving were confused by several groups that seemed to be flying backwards and forwards along the cliffs. Some would land in the trees before flying off in search of food.

Near the monument they were dropping down to feed on the thistles on the edge of the "Big Field". A whirr of yellow, black and Red.

There always fun to watch as they pull the seed heads to pieces, and they are continually moving on to the nest plants.

Out in the field groups of Linnets were flying around and then dropping down to feed. On the grey background the groups of birds seemed to quickly vanish and there were hard work to relocate. Unfortunately when I did I could find anything else with them, but it's always worth looking just in case.

I did find three lingering Wheatears along the edge of the field, this one was particularly reluctant to fly allowing quite close approach, it may have been tired having just arrived. There were other birds in the area, notably a handsome young Hobby flew over me, near the monument and a Short-eared Owl wend down in the grass in the paddock. Here a Tree Pipit popped up into a tree right in front of me, but lingered for only a couple of seconds before moving on. Most of the Goldcrests seem to have departed, but there were still a good number of Chiffchaffs around, two of which I heard singing.

This evening there were two Little Egrets in the bay and two Mediterranean Gulls, a second year and an adult were feeding just off shore.