Port Meadow Birding

An evening run around the patch found conditions rather pleasant with lots of autumn sunshine and little wind. The main thing of note was the large number of pied wagtails around. I counted at least 75 and there were probably a lot more. There are not normally anything like this many so they must be on the move. They were rather aggressive and kept chasing meadow pipits, goldfinches and even starlings. Just half a dozen or so golden plover this evening and fewer meadow pipits around than usual. There was a flock of 25 or so goldfinches feeding on the thistles in the hinterland and a similar sized flock near the car park on Walton Well road. Linnet numbers seemed to have increased slightly as well with getting on for 40 or so birds. About half a dozen sky larks were also seen.

A juvenile goldfinch © Nigel Forrow