Raining Blackbirds

With a few domestic matters to attend to in the centre of Scarborough this morning, I headed into a wet and rainy town with little thought of any birding prospects for the day. However as I was about to head for Sainsbury's (oh yes what an exciting life I lead!) I noticed that the sky was full of Blackbirds streaming over, clearly having just arrived from the sea. A five minute count produced a conservative estimate of 400+. Wow! Smaller numbers of Redwings and Fieldfares were also amongst the throng.The shopping was completed in double quick time with a further 200 or so Blackbirds over the car park it was quickly home to dump the shopping and out to Long Nab. Reaching the ringing site around 1220hrs it was obvious that Blackbirds were still streaming over and my count for Long Nab had reached 350 before getting out of the car! Nearly three hours around the ringing site and I had logged totals of 1050+ Blackbirds, 160+ Redwings, 40+ Fieldfares, 5 Song Thrushes arriving from the sea. Most of them feeding for short periods and continuing inland. I was also pleased to log four Bewick's Swans arriving from the sea - always a scarce species around here. As I left the site at dusk at least 70 Blackbirds were around the top plantation. 

This really was impressive stuff and yet another memorable autumn day on this wonderful stretch of coastline. Blackbirds barely register as I see them daily in the back garden, but yet here with this fantastic spectacle of migration in action, I was bouncing around like a child at Christmas with a big grin on my face. What joy!

Some pics below. As usual no great shakes and the typical excuses of poor light etc, but hopefully you get some kind of idea.

Part of a newly arrived flock of 40 Blackbirds feeding briefly before continuing inland.

No not dirt on the lens, those are Blackbirds heading inland after a brief feed up in the ringing site

I set a couple of mist nets hoping to catch a few of the Blackbirds, but the rides most likely to catch good numbers were a little breezy. So just a handful were caught. Judging by the fat and muscle scores of the few I did catch, it isn't surprising that most birds were quick to move on. 

Female Blackbird