Sunday 17 January 2010

Where did the woodcock go?

Well, it sounds like some of them moved to Northern Ireland in an effort to escape all the snow and ice we've had here. Peregrine's Bird Blog reports seeing many more woodcock in the Strangford area in the last couple of weeks - and he's managed to take a couple of great photos of them in flight too.

7 comments:

Peregrine's Bird Blog said...

Thank you!!

vicky said...

Nice blog and pictures Peregrine! I saw lots of fieldfares in Eastbourne town centre in the cold weather; flocks of them in gardens! I also saw a redwing. Are these birds always about but more notivable against a blanket of snow or does weather drive them nearer to warmer towns and villages? I don't know how we're doing for Woodcock in sussex as I've not been out beating for a week :-(

Peregrine's Bird Blog said...

Vicky
The cold weather in Scandinavia has been pushing the thrushes to the west. An orchard in Suffolk pulled in over 10,000 fieldfare.

On the west coast of Ireland Redwings and Fieldfares were seen in their thousands flying towards America and There have been a few records of these getting to Canada.

vicky said...

Thanks Mr Peregrine! I can report all the other woodcock (the ones not in ireland) are in east sussex. They saw 60+ out beating today!

Meconopsis said...

What a load of tosh Fieldfares heading to America !!!! maybe a few nice photos but not one bit of bird knowlage at all !!!! Where are these reports of western birds heading to the East in numbers ??

Peregrine's Bird Blog said...

I love Andy's ignorance and spelling . In Ireland with the cold weather from just before Christmas there has been the greatest influx of Redwings and Fieldfares since the early 60's. On the family farm in Co.Donegal over Christmas we had over 400 birds in two fields. Around the 8th of January off the coast of Galway two observers on Inisbofin (one of the most western islands in Ireland) watched over 3000 birds, a mixture of Fieldfares and Redwings flying westwards over a four hour period there was a strong easterly wind direction. However off the coast of America and Canada there was a strong Northerly gale. Here is a link to NARBA http://www.narba.org/default.aspx?MenuItemID=135&&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1 which shows photos of Redwings in both Canada and USA. Bruce McTavish has seen at least three Redwings this year.

About every three years or so even Lapwings are found in Canada.
http://birdingnewfoundland.blogspot.com/
Also in really cold spells Jack Snipe and Snipe turn up in Canada.

The reason we also had a massive fall of Woodcock was because of the cold weather in UK infact I think there was an satellite image of the UK completely covered in Snow.

But as Andy says I have no bird knowledge.

Meconopsis said...

Quote :On the west coast of Ireland Redwings and Fieldfares were seen in their thousands flying towards America and There have been a few records of these getting to Canada:

Ok I made a spelling mistake.

Anyone see one in this sentence ?

Quote:The reason we also had a massive fall of Woodcock was because of the cold weather in UK infact I think there was an satellite image of the UK completely covered in Snow.:

Back to the thousands of birds making the Thousand plus mile trip to the US looks like many did not make it !!

More than likely a few Greenland birds were blown off course during the autumn migration.