I had an opportunity to dash down to the SL to hunt out the Yellow-Browed warbler again, and with the sun shining I couldn’t resist it. Using the Bird Guides app I was reassured that the bird(s) that I’d seen previously had not moved, which being late November was a surprise.

The weekend weather had been atrocious which was evidenced by the leak in our roof! Having seen the bird on the Friday before, I expected that this weather put it off going anywhere.

Once at the Ham Wall NNR in Somerset, and well togged up, I marched to the location and found a couple of birders also hunting for the warbler. After a long wait the distinctive call gave it away above us, but as it was buried in the branches and flitting around I wasn’t able to get a picture sadly. There was no doubt that it was the warbler, with ID helped by the wing bars.

As I was on the reserve I stayed for the starling murmuration. The sky was pretty cloud free and they poured in from all directions in their 1000s. I have no real way of knowing but Id guess at least 200k birds, any maybe more. Unusually they split into two groups, although some joined the main flock in due course. This is a wonderful spectaclle enjoyed by eneryone there.

I recorded a similar murmuration the week before in the same place which can be seen here: Peter McSweeney’s Video – Nov 7, 2024.

There was a rather lovely corona whilst we waited for the starling action:

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