Black Redstart...... 26th Jan 2013

Today I had a bit of a thrash around the patch focusing mainly on covering the various bird crops.....

First off was a very mobile black redstart at Low Newton, presumably the same bird that was reported in the vicinity a week or two ago....

Black redstart

On the shore at Low Newton 12 rock pipits were present including this fairly clean/greyish looking bird....

While black redstart is a pretty good winter bird here, today's 'star bird' title must go to the humble skylark !

I was blown away by the massive number of skylarks both in the bird crops and logged flying along the coast, a real birding spectacle.....

Today's star bird !.... well, not this particular one, but you know what I mean.....

In the bird crops I logged over 1,200 skylarks today !! Added to this there was a steady trickle of birds moving mainly southwards along the coast throughout the day (flocks of 30-100 birds).

Just a tiny part of the massive skylark flock in the bird crops......

I covered 3 bird crops today and logged:

1,200 skylarks

200+ reed buntings
140+ yellowhammers

400+ linnets
5+ twite
3 grey partridge

Finally, on the walk home 11 twite were at the Long Nanny.