Blackbird influx? 8th Feb 2010

[darrenm]

just wondering if anyone else had had an influx of Blackirds in their area in the last few days?

Had a walk round my local patch this morning to see if there were still any Bittern present and straight away noticed a larger number of Blackbirds than is normally present at this time of year and upon getting home noticed the same thing in and around my garden area.

On my last count in the last hour i have counted 14 from my window when normally this time of the year we just have a resident pair and the male sees off any other single birds that turn up. The other thing is a large perentage of the birds are male.

Could this be a movement of Continental birds or could they have been forced into this area through a change in the weather with things getting colder again within the last 24 hours. I live in the East Midlands area.

[loripo]

I've noticed this in London too for the last few years. I thought it may be that so many people now put out bird food that they don't have to compete so much. We see groups of 5/6 male birds all seemingly happily feeding together. Very few females tho.

[artdemole]

In the alltogether here ,round the back on the track.always following each other turning leaves,jumping up at the insects.4-6 seen regular...psj n.e.sommerset

[Dogghound]

We seem to be getting steady streams of them here at the moment. Also worth noting several waxings have moved across in the last few days.

[darrenm]

back to the normal resident pair this morning and no sign of the others that were in and around my garden yesterday but this may be down to there being no berries left at all on any of the bushes.They are totally stripped after having the attention of a large flock of Redwing in mid January and what was left was finished off yesterday. Will check my local patch later in the week to see if the numbers are still up.

Also heard of a few reports of Waxwings on the East Coast in the last few days and maybe it is part of an influx from the Continent due to the weather once again becoming colder but dont imagine there will be much food left for them if they arrive in any number.

[artdemole]

Only two males so far today.One on feeder at front lawn.The other at the back on grass by 3 redwings.

[Dogghound]

I checked a 30 miles strip of the East coast today at various points had no waxwings (o anything rarer) although there were good numbers of blackbirds and several song thrush and fieldfare some came in off the sea. There was an extremely strong wind from the east, so I would expect some migrants.

[darrenm]

sounding good Dogghound and will keep my eyes peeled when out and about later in the week. Hopefully something unusual will turn up with them.