November 12th

A rainy day, with a strong south-easterly wind to start. The consequence late this afternoon, as I spent a quick hour down at Balcomie Beach and Fife Ness, was migrants coming in. A woodcock, starlings, fieldfares and blackbirds all arriving low, in from the North Sea. A flock of five fieldfares and a starling landed on the first rocks they encountered at Fife Ness, looking tired and confused. After five minutes of collecting themselves, they were off further inland – I hope to nice, safe roost in the Patch or at Kilminning. But this is not necessarily a sure thing, even when the apparent safety of land is reached. A blackbird, also resting on the shore by Stinky Pool, was promptly grabbed by a sparrowhawk. John and I accidentally then flushed the sparrowhawk just afterwards and it took off over the golf course, eventually carrying its prey to the denser cover of the gorse bushes below the club house where it could feed in peace.

The sparrowhawk with the newly arrived, but sadly ex-blackbird (John Anderson). All that way across the North Sea…migration is the major time of mortality for many bird species.