REDWINGS galore - 13 October

It was one of those awesome days on the hill this morning, when, once things got moving, it was an incredible experience.

Looking at the weather yesterday, the overnight forecast and the forecast for early morning I suspected that passage might be quite good, and indeed that's how things turned out.

The sun rose, beautifully at just before 7.30, I noted the first REDWING flock about 10 minutes later, there were none pre-sunrise that I could see/ hear. All flocks passed well to the South of the Beacon, passing over Steps Hill and slightly further to the South.

The flocks gradually became larger in size and the quantity intensified with a huge movement between about 8.15 and 9.00. By 9.00 c6000 had passed over. From 9.00 things slowed dramatically and by about 9.15, it was if someone had turned the tap off again.

Many of the flocks were passing over several hundred metres over the top of the hill, and I suspect they may have been invisible at lower levels ? After 9.00 some flocks were landing on the hill, a behaviour not really noted early on, and were clearly looking for somewhere to roost and feed, a pattern observed previously.

A total of 6,550 by the time I really had to go at 9.30.

This movement has been evident across many parts of the Country, I understand (Mike Wallen)