October 2024 — Just A Bird

The local birding in October was not very productive. Very few migrants appeared and no rare birds were seen at all. The weather was dismal also. Due to recent changes in circumstance, I have more family commitments than ever before and long hours out in the field are not very likely in the near future. In times of plenty, my brief stops and searches are OK and I find a few stuff. However, in lean times, birders really need to commit and dig out good birds by putting in the time, which isn’t really an option at the moment.

The most surprising sighting was at low tide on a nice sunny day at Pulias on 4th October. On my patch, ducks are at a real premium and, apart from the ubiquitous Mallards and Shelducks, I see very few. So it was weird to see a male Gadwall just swimming off the rocks, looking lost. It slowly drifted north-east along the coast and disappeared round the corner never to be seen again. A quality patch tick, my fourth of the year.

Gadwall - on the sea off Pulias, 4 Oct 24

Sombre Brocade in the early morning sun - garden, 4 Oct 24 - the nights were too poor at weekends for moth trapping apart from this one night early in the month

During the last week of the month we headed out to Iceland on our school trip. We hadn’t been since before covid so it was great to get on track and hopefully keep it going in the future. Our first night was spent in the field studies centre at Juniper Hall in the Surrey Hills. This was just a few hundred metres from Box Hill where I visited a few years ago. It was just a quick overnighter though although I was pleased to hear lots of “yaffling” of a Green Woodpecker early in the morning which is something I have not heard for a while.

Of course, the school trip to Iceland is not really set up for birding but I am always in hope of seeing something decent. At this time of year most things have already moved through and the stops we make are mostly at particular tourist sites and also inland which means there is less likelihood of picking up birds. Most of our few hours in coastal Reykjavik was in darkness but a brief visit to the shoreline saw a few Glaucous Gulls, Eiders, Common Scoters and a couple of Black Guillemots swimming in the bay. Unluckily this spot was just the other side of the harbour to where the White-winged Scoter was hanging out! Around the town there were lots of Redwings and Blackbirds on the roadside verges. Leaving the city, there was plenty of roadside ponds and lakes but we just whizz past on the coach. I did see a Goldeneye/Barrow’s Goldeneye female on one of the ponds - I am not sure which is more likely. One noticeable difference this year was that I saw much more wildfowl than I did the previous two trips feeding in the flat fields in the south including lots of small groups of Whooper Swans dotted around. There were goose flocks too with Greylag being the most common, and at least three large groups of Pink-footed Geese which may have numbered into the 1000’s. I also saw one flock of Whitefronts which must have been Greenland White-fronted Geese. Other passerines were not very much in evidence but I did have a small flock of Redpolls fly around whilst swimming in the hot springs. A White Wagtail was living its best life inside the heated greenhouse which was growing tomatoes - this one was probably not going to be migrating south.

Just A Bird

Just A Bird

Mark Lawlor's Nature Blog

Just A Bird

Just A Bird