At this time last year I hadn't seen any fieldfare and very few redwing. This year I have seen 1,000's of each passing over. Initially they were heading north, now they have reverted to what is the usual direction of southwest.
The run of north-easterly winds seemed to be to the redwing's liking and they left Scandinavia in big numbers, but they ended up too far south, so have been working their way back to northern UK to where they usually start their winter visit. The Fieldfare seemed to miss this and have mostly been heading south.
Chaffinch and Brambling have started to arrive in decent numbers from the Continent as well. They are heading southwest as well, hunting out beech woodlands to feed on the beech mast, once this is gone they will start to appear in gardens and fields looking for other food.
Keep an eye on your bird feeders for siskin this winter. There have been good numbers heading south from Scotland where they seemed to have a great breeding season. There's nothing like a male siskin to bring a bit of colour to a winter garden. He still looks great in this picture from a rainy day in June this year! (NA)
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