Migration to marvel at: a gateway drug to vismigging...

Turdus torquatus is one of those Latin names that very much suits the bird it is applied to. Turdus is the word for thrush, and torquatus has two meanings - one linked to the Wryneck (where the word means "twisted" in honour of the way the Wryneck contorts itself when threatened) and one linked to Ring Ouzel where the word means "wearer of a torc".  Torcs were jewellery made famous by ancient Egyptian culture (but actually present across lots of ancient cultures), and take the shape of a wide semi-circular necklace that covers the upper chest.  The Ring Ouzel is the Torc-wearing Thrush.

At 5.48am it was 1C and there was very much a sense of frost and darkness and regret in my car.  I was in urgent need of caffeine, and I had timed my arrival for first light poorly given that I was on the west side of a valley, meaning the light would be later to appear.  I walked the road for a mile up the hill and then back down slowly, hearing Tawny Owls and seeing Barn Owl, a single Curlew and an indignant Snipe.  Blackbirds, Stonechats, Meadow Pipits and a good little flock of Tree Sparrows all began to appear, but no sign of the flock of Ring Ouzels that was counted variously between nine and 14 birds yesterday.  To give you some idea of how unusual that number is I haven't seen more than four Ring Ouzels together across the Horwich Moors at any point, whether as a teen in the 90s or in the last six years of birding.  A day with seven individuals across five or six miles of moorland was my best day, so to see nine or more would have been incredible.

Six Ring Ouzels in the edge of this plantation, with the Winter Hill mast in the background

In the half light, frost still very much present, my breath a plume of ephemeral white in clear air, the first two Ring Ouzels appeared in an open area of grass amongst the bog plants.  Silently, two more joined them, and another, and then one more.  Six Ring Ouzels in one sheep field.  All males.  I couldn't believe my luck!  I watched them squabble and flush when sheep wandered too near, or when a Pheasant squawked and scared them up into the low hawthorn either side of the field.  And suddenly I was aware that there were a lot more than six.  Eight were immediately apparent in the tree tops, and then more began to join them until there was a good 13 birds.  Shocked, I followed the flock as they sought a place to feed and they eventually settled where a convenient dry stone wall allowed me to crawl on my hands and knees parallel to them and slowly find a gap in the top so my outline wouldn't break the horizon.  I counted again.  16 Ring Ouzels all together in one field.  I was laughing silently to myself - ridiculous.  I was glad of Andy Makin's company - nobody would have believed my count if I was the only one to see them!

Strangely, it appeared that the whole flock was comprised of male birds, but having done a little digging, it's clear that some females can be strikingly marked, so it's possible that I overlooked female birds or put them down as 1st summer males.  Another interesting fact I learned was that one subspecies is more scaly in the silver markings than the other: the alpestris variant (meaning "of the Alps") is very pale scaled and at least two of the birds in the flock looked good for that type.  I wish I'd managed an in-focus photo of them, they were very boldly marked and interesting!  It was a real education, comparing the long tail and long-winged silhouette to Blackbirds and a Song Thrush, and to be able to hear their stony "tock" contact calls as they came close to the wall I hid behind.  A singing Grasshopper Warbler conducted my annual hearing check up and then Andy and I parted ways.

I drove to a site I know has had breeding Pied Flycatchers in previous years, and some exploration has yielded some interesting information about the impact of clearing ornamental rhododendron from our local oak woods.  Watch this space for further updates on oak forest specialists.  I stood at my traditional viewpoint with three nest boxes in view, and waited to hear Pied Flycatcher.  I invariably hear them at this location before I see them, or, at least I always had prior to today.  This morning I sat down on a tuft of moss to let the forest sounds wash over me and looked up to find a bold male Pied Flycatcher no more than 15 feet above me!  It was looking at me intently, and I raised my camera and fired off three photographs before he shot off, landing a little further out and lower down.  Three more pictures and he was gone, joined or contested at the last second I could see the bird by at least two females and another male.  A male called once from the large oak at my back, and then flew off north.

A single large oak tree with a singing Redstart made my day

By this point I was ecstatic and messaged the small WhatsApp group I'm in saying, "I've heard Grasshopper Warbler [as well as Pied Flycatcher and Ring Ouzel].  Just want a Redstart and I'll be on the whisky."  My next message, 17 minutes later was a photo of a distant male Redstart on a large oak that I'd picked up on its call.  "Redstart!  I shit you not!!" was my pithy message. These are the really unexpected bird locally.  In theory there should be a decent breeding population across the moors - there is a reasonable deciduous woodland covering in areas and some good habitat clings on in places, but Redstart remain a tenuous breeder at best, and more often simply a passage migrant.  An autumn bird here when they are found on wire fences at the edges of plantations on the sheltered south facings of the hills, they associate with Black Redstarts (more "common" than Redstart here!) and both Spotted and Pied Flycatchers in small feeding flocks at the end of August and through to mid-September.

So migration takes some time to get going in my corner of Manchester and Lancashire, but once it's going there are those days when you feel like you could bump into anything just around the next corner.  Even writing this I want to be back out, looking for more.  It seems that birding might just be the gateway drug into vismigging...