RecoveringScot
Well-known member
I've just returned from a week in the old home town - not primarily a birdwatching holiday, but I squeezed in a few hours every day.
Around the Brynsiencyn area in the SW there were plentiful Buzzards (up to 10-12 together) and Ravens (largest flock 23) as usual, but Jays were more noticeable than when I used to live there (till 2001), being seen in two or three places, with up to three seen at each. Long-tailed Tits were also very numerous this week and there were several flocks of Redwing (up to 100 at a time) and a few Fieldfares with them. Mistle Thrushes were abundant, Great Spotted Woodpeckers highly visible on most days, and a Little Egret was seen at Foel on the Wednesday.
But the nicest thing was the large numbers of Skylarks heard moving overhead. When I first lived in the area in the 1980s I used to get up to 2,000 a day in October, usually moving SW. By 2001 they had dwindled to a pathetic maximum of 6! They haven't returned to their former numbers yet I think, but I saw and heard several hundreds over the week.
In general there were abundant finches (not always indiviually id'ed as to species but mainly Chaffinch), and a feral flock of about 30 Canada Geese. Pied Wagtails numbered up to 30 in the first few days, and there were 2 lagging Swallows on the 11th.
The weather was beautiful throughout.
Cheers
Around the Brynsiencyn area in the SW there were plentiful Buzzards (up to 10-12 together) and Ravens (largest flock 23) as usual, but Jays were more noticeable than when I used to live there (till 2001), being seen in two or three places, with up to three seen at each. Long-tailed Tits were also very numerous this week and there were several flocks of Redwing (up to 100 at a time) and a few Fieldfares with them. Mistle Thrushes were abundant, Great Spotted Woodpeckers highly visible on most days, and a Little Egret was seen at Foel on the Wednesday.
But the nicest thing was the large numbers of Skylarks heard moving overhead. When I first lived in the area in the 1980s I used to get up to 2,000 a day in October, usually moving SW. By 2001 they had dwindled to a pathetic maximum of 6! They haven't returned to their former numbers yet I think, but I saw and heard several hundreds over the week.
In general there were abundant finches (not always indiviually id'ed as to species but mainly Chaffinch), and a feral flock of about 30 Canada Geese. Pied Wagtails numbered up to 30 in the first few days, and there were 2 lagging Swallows on the 11th.
The weather was beautiful throughout.
Cheers
