P**sed down with rain all day today with strong winds. Around 09.45 a few Redwing and Fieldfare moved north east into the wind and rain. Then at 10.30 a flock of 95 Redwing went north east followed by 40, 130 and 196. Also small groups of Fieldfare between 7 and 9 birds. In 12 minutes 562 Redwing and 65 Fieldfare moved through, then nothing. At 11.10 it started again and this time the flocks were even bigger and they were coming thick and fast with Redwing counts of 83, 125, 290 then 230 with some Fieldfare then c400 with around 50 Fieldfare, 180, 300 etc. It was pretty spectacular. In the 16 minute period up to 11.26 a total of 2288 Redwing and 280 Fieldfare moved through in the pouring rain. Then it was over, finishing as abruptly as it started. The grand total for the two periods totalling only 28 minutes were 2910 Redwing and 345 Fieldfare.
Not really sure what was going on but it looked as though the birds were coming in off the channel, they had presumably somehow found themselves in the middle the channel and had to battle against the elements to get to land.
It was very difficult to count and take photos at the same time and many of the birds were going overhead so could only get a fraction of the flocks in but did get a few flocks before they got too close
A few gathering waders
