Christine's walking & birds blog

I started off this morning with a tramp through Egypt Woods. A ringing call repeated several times from deep in the woods reminded me of a similar call I heard once in Sweden - in fact, I'm sure it was the same. On that occasion, I traced it to a singing redwing and assumed it was part of the song. I never saw today's bird so I'm not sure; but it's a nice sound to hear - slightly trilling, and in tone rather like a mistle thrush.

A buzzard landed on a bare branch nearby - and, seeing me as it touched down, took off again in the same movement.

In the Beeches I saw redwings flying about above the trees until finally one perched quite close. Pity about all the intervening twigs, but that's how I saw it.

Also in the Beeches were my first bramblings of the autumn. Two were feeding on rowan berries in the company of chaffinches. Later, I saw one in a silver birch with redpolls.

I counted at least ten redpolls, but I'm sure there were more. Sudden sharp alarm calls rang out - and there was a sparrowhawk, circling overhead. A flock of about thirty small birds went up and mobbed it.

I blame the shocking pictures on the poor light (it was drizzling at one point). Never mind, I've got a whole winter to get some better ones. All dogs encountered were benign ones, and I was interrogated about my "noculars" by a small boy called Joshua. Quite a nice morning.