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Sunday, 6 November 2011

Start Point

Beautiful morning though a chilly moderate to fresh north wind.
Got to the car park at 07:00 and did a vis mig watch until 08:45 when i got a call to go to work just as things were hammering through. Monster Chaffinch passage, birds coming in waves flying north up Mattiscombe Valley, all to much to keep tabs on so numbers probably underestimate true scale of passage.
600 Woodpigeon ( low count cp Thurlestone, Exmouth etc but i was not paying attention to the line they would be moving in - out of sight for me ), 25 Stock Dove, Golden Plover, 16 Skylark, 40 Meadow Pipit, 22 alba Wagtails, 4 Fieldfare, 10 Redwing, 30 Starling, 1080 Chaffinch, 5 Brambling ( low count cp usual Chaffinch / Brambling ratio here ), 25 Linnet, 380 Goldfinch, 20 Greenfinch, 17 Siskin, Reed Bunting and a vocal Lapland Bunting very low over the car park at 08:07. Surprisingly no Redpolls heard.
Great passage, shame had to abort early and had to watch from a very windy exposed area with phone coverage but are'nt we lucky to live in Devon with all its great birding spots.