On a lovely wall to wall sunny day on Thursday, there was nothing more I wanted to do, than to get to do a 3 mile circuit Rigg Lane-Birk Bank-Cragg Wood-Littledale Road-Rigg Lane. There was half a chance of me finding the last Common Darter around the bog, and maybe some winter thrush to be seen.
Well, two visits to Birk Bank Bog, one at the start of the walk, and one at the end, proved my first hope wasn't to be, with not a darter in sight. But as I was leaving the boardwalk, the sound of a loud chattering 'schack-schack-schack' filled the skies above me, and by the time I ended the walk 3 hours later, I had seen the arrival and roaming around a wide area, of at least 365 Fieldfare. Flocks were seen several times in 3 hours estimated at 200/100/60/5
Mostly seen distant and in flight, the Fieldfare were accompanied by a few noticeably smaller Redwing, this flock were mobile west of Cragg Wood later in the afternoon at 3.00pm.
Couldn't resist a picture of the Robin by the lane to Rushy Lee.
