Everything appears to have cleared out given the good weather we've enjoyed. Cold searching techniques by colleagues and myself have turned up nothing , but also confirmed that the "tail end" warblers, hirundines and chats have moved on. There's a strange feeling of vacuum, that even refers itself to the landscape, as the multitudes of Meadow Pipits have moved through and not been replaced. Various places seem silent! Looking back at these weeks last year still shows a few of such species to be present up to and including the last week of the month.
As if to pour insult on injury we are not enjoying any of the fall out of good birds that are turning up along the east coast of Scotland and England! These drift migrants have been brought across in the favourable weather conditions which has seen the presence of easterly winds literally assisting birds westwards to our shores. It seems that we're on the wrong island and should be on Orkney or Fair Isle!!!
It will be interesting to see if we can anticipate any more of our "normal" migrants at this time of year or whether passage has already more or less finished to be replaced quite soon now by the passage of winter thrushes. And of one thing we can be certain, the vacuum and silence will soon be filled by the presence and calls of our 45,000+ wintering geese!
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