Over the past week there have been small parties of Starlings coming in off the sea; some more exhausted than others. We’ve been picking them up through optics way out and following them in. Some are so tired they just crash onto the beach others look as if they could do it all again. One flock we saw were dipping lower and lower to the water. We waited with anticipation to see if they would make it … they did … but only just. There was a spontaneous applause from the group I was with in sheer appreciation of the effort. Nature and Naturalists at their best.
This morning it was the Thrushes turn. Even before I’d got out of bed I could hear the clucking of Blackbirds in the garden. I went to the window and counted thirty and that was only the ones I could see. There had been a fall. The Blackbirds were continental long dark billed wary birds. I was outside quickly. More Blackbirds, Song Thrushes, Redwings and Fieldfare than I could count; in the garden, flying overhead and dropping from the sky. Then as soon as it started it stopped. Then another wave came in all fighting the south westerly. Some of the Blackbirds rested, fed and bathed in the garden pond before moving on southward towards Suffolk and no doubt beyond.