The middle of November was mostly damp and mild, with the rivers high and fast, carrying some mud from far fields upstream. It will be a while before ground water levels reach the usual height for this time of the year however.
Conditions east and north of our shores have recently worsened, triggering flocks of birds to head west and south in search of food and shelter, given favourable winds.
Locating rivers, lakes and shores from the air is easy for birds and our winter migrants, redwing, field fare, continental blackbirds and song thrushes mainly, don't take long to get here. They drop down suddenly into thickets and proceed to explore the immediate area for food. mostly berries, the numbers of birds in the hedgerows and trees increasing hugely overnight. Splitting up into smaller groups they will select sheltered areas, feed then sit together, resting in the warmest sheltered thickets. Some will communicate by calling or singing, filling the riverbanks with sound where the day before all was quiet apart from one or two local robins and wrens. Goldfinches and starlings often fly to join in.
A Willow seen through the bridge railings, the design perfect for spiders
to form webs to trap insects carried by the breeze above the river.
In turn, birds fly in to glean the trapped insects!
Nature will win in the end.
On Sunday 18th November 2018, after a cold start, the skies were clear with the sun quickly warming up surfaces. There had been a large increase in bird numbers, with many more blackbirds, more song thrushes, newly arrived redwing and fieldfare all exploring thickets for berries and fruits from top to bottom. Blue and great tits and a few coal tits were also busy foraging - but gleaning invertebrates from the undersides of leaves still left on trees such as willows.
Linnets in flight, bullfinches and goldfinches were also present, with noisy jays still finding plenty of acorns amongst the fallen oak leaves.
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