Viz Mig - the in phrase

Blackbird enjoying berries

It seems as if everything you read about birds at this time of year is concentrating about "Viz Mig" a rather lazy way of saying visible migration of birds.   We decided that this Wednesday we would try for some migration sightings of our own and headed for the Isle of Thanet.

Autumn berries

We started out at Bishopstone and the minute we got out of the car we had flocks of small birds flying overhead.   A kestrel hovered over the field behind.   In the bushes near the car park we had robin, chaffinch, wood pigeon, collared dove and starling.   As we followed the flying flocks we realised they were all going east to west along the coast, and only around the cliffs and cliff top.   Mostly swallow, with some house martin mixed in.   We then realised that there were some finches too, these all appeared to be chaffinch - although it would have been possible for the odd brambling to pass us by - the groups were up to 30-40 in number and passing through constantly.   Within minutes we had seen probably 2-300 of each species.

Golden plover

Robin were "ticking" from the brambles, occasionally showing themselves but generally staying out of sight.   Two stonechat perched up on a dying stalk keeping watch before dashing off into cover.   A pair of wren moved ahead of us.   Blackbird, great tit, crow, and pied wagtail were also seen well.   As we moved into the more wooded area we were firmly into wood pigeon country with over 20 birds perched in the trees on sunny branches enjoying the autumn sunshine.

On the sea there were herring gull, great black-backed gull, great crested grebe, and Irene spotted four turnstone on the beach.   A group of 13 Jay flew over - probably part of the huge influx from the continent - the BTO are currently seeing the highest number reported in the last eight years.

We spent some time simply watching and marvelling at the vast numbers of birds flying overhead.    We realised that goldfinch flocks were also on the move - the more we watched the more we saw, amazing to think of all these birds on the move at the same time.   Thank goodness for John Buckingham's talk on migration last week, it helped to have a bit more idea of what is actually happening around us.   House sparrow, magpie and cormorant were also seen.

Ladybird with lichen

Back at the car park we realised that what we had been watching on the coast was also being duplicated slightly inland, we then wondered along how much of coastline - as the birds were following the coast it was hard to see if they were coming in from the north or from the east.   So off we went to Reculver.

Brent Geese flying west

Here we found similar numbers of birds passing through taking a short cut inland of the towers, but still speeding east to west.   Mainly swallow with some house martin again and chaffinch.   Large flocks of goldfinch were also moving along.   Three kestrels were hunting over the fields behind the seawall, struggling to hold their hover in the strong wind.   We found 23 turnstone on the beach here, and six little egret sheltering against some bushes.  A peregrine shot past, circled below the sea defences and then almost took Irene's head off as it came back towards us.   A small group of ringed plover flew along the shoreline feeding on the receding tide.

Our final stop was at Seasalter where we hoped the tide would be going out revealing some feeding areas.   Immediately we saw huge flocks of brent geese - I love these almost-elegant winter visitors, and in their large flocks they make a great sight.   The sounds as they communicate within the flock is lovely also.    Huge numbers of them were moving west towards Oare.  Something upset a large group of golden plover that had been settled on the marshes behind the sea wall, these delightful birds made beautiful patterns in the sky as their colours caught the light, twisting and turning for many minutes as we watched and enjoyed.

One very long worm

Unfortunately, they were far quicker than us, and with the sky darkening and time moving inexorably on we decided to call it a day, missing out on the opportunity of a red-breasted goose which was apparently in the group.