Sunday, 11 March 2018

Major movement of Fieldfare over Deopham, Norfolk

Today was another long day at work starting at 0630 through to 1800.  It was my I intention to have lunch, a short nap, and a static bird-watch from the car for my afternoon break.
I was kept entertained for some time by a group of 12 Brown Hares which, following a period of doing nothing, then proceeded to chase as a group over the large fields, sometimes attaining a good speed.
At about 1345hrs, a large group of Fieldfares gathered in a couple of large trees to my left.  There was typically a lot of 'chacking' calls, then at about 1400hrs the Fieldfare left together, passing directly over my car.  I get out of the car as there seemed to more Fieldfare, but I was not expecting a vast number of birds stretching across the sky, which I estimated to be well in excess of 1500-2000 birds, all were heading in a more or less north-east heading.  Some 15 minutes later another smaller flock passed over, again in a north-east heading.
Fieldfare passage can be seen throughout March and April as they make for their Scandinavian breeding grounds.  My latest date for Fieldfare was 1st May.
A small flock of about 25 Lapwings were seen, 10+ Carrion Crows, a few singing Skylarks, and a singing Yellowhammer.  A Kestrel passed over too.

No comments:

Post a Comment