I was pleased to see a small skein of 40 Pink-footed Geese crossing Beeley Moor this morning, I had thought they might have missed us this autumn with a large movement of birds down the east coast last weekend with 12,000 passing Spurn on Friday the 21st. Hopefully there are still more to come, and we may catch birds returning to the Lancashire coast before the end of the year if there are issues with the sugar beet crop in Norfolk like last year.
A female or immature Merlin give superb views through the telescope as it sat on one of the old stone shooting butts and if I'd known it was going to fly directly towards me I could have had a nice photo but by the time I'd got the camera it was flying away. There are hundreds of Meadow Pipits migrating over the moor at the moment so there's no shortage of food for it.
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| Merlin female/immature flying away |
The old shooting butts also attracted a migrant Northern Wheatear, only the second I've seen this month.
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| Northern Wheatear |
There have also been several Jay crossing the moor, with a group of 5 yesterday and several small parties of Common Snipe.
With the colder weather now it definitely feeling like autumn now.
