Today was a full day of work mostly in the Costessey (pronounced Cossey) area of Norwich. One of the most awaited for events in the birding calendar for me is the witnessing of Thrush migration in autumn. This morning I saw the first Thrushes of the autumn passing over Costessey early morning.
Firstly, I saw 7+ Blackbirds fly from a residential garden together and climb away south-west. Shortly afterwards a few Redwings passed over calling.
The Dereham road leading into Norwich gets very busy and of course the volume of traffic you would think would drown out bird calls, despite this, a small party of Song Thrushes passed overhead south, I was initially alerted by their "tic" flight call.
My final few calls at around sunset was in Hethersett, I was again alerted by calls overhead given by a couple of high-flying Redwings.
These Thrushes, including Fieldfare (not seen today) originate from their breeding grounds in Scandinavia. They abandon these areas of Europe for the winter, to either winter with us, or to migrate further south to the Iberian Peninsula. The Blackbirds and Song Thrushes which breed with us are generally sedentary, however, some interesting movements of Blackbirds within the UK have been recorded, including a bird which summered in Norfolk but migrated south-west to spend the winter in the same Cornish garden for a few years.
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