What Is It With These Woodcock?

There have been a lot of records of Woodcock showing up in the open in daylight just recently - not really what they're supposed to do at all - and I've got another for you. On my way back from the Mardle this afternoon, I flushed one from an open hillside, where the only cover was dead bracken! Did not expect that. [I doubt the Woodcock expected me, either...]

Getting back to the beginning.. This morning I went over to Hembury Woods, in the hope of some of the vast hordes of Mandarin being around. After two sweeps of the river I ended up with 28; 16 males, 1 immature male, and 11 females. While they were typically wary, I did get some great views and in a much nicer surround than underneath a concrete road bridge.. ;) To get the full count I did have to wade through worryingly deep mud [the kind where you just have to hope your foot stops going down before your boots are topped..] to get to the nice viewpoint at the south end of the NT area though, as most of them decided not to be at the top end of the island.

Otherwise, the woods were as quiet as you'd expect. A few tit bands, Nuthatches, a GSW... A lone Fieldfare flew over [wow!]. On the plus side, it was utterly beautiful. The weather was far sunnier than forecast, and with everything wet from the overnight rain, it brought the colours out wonderfully. I must admit to cursing a little, though, as I've learnt that there's just no way to photograph this spectacle [and a spectacle it truly is] and do it justice.

With the Mandarin having been mostly driven off by the general public [early and late seems to be the best time to get numbers of them], I decided to move on. [[Didn't see that coming, did you? ;) ]]

Heading up over Holne Moor to the Mardle to play my annual game of Fieldcraft vs Fieldfares - a little sunnier than I'd like, but never mind. This was slightly derailed by a lack of thrushes! There were plenty in the fields adjacent to t'Moor, but despite there still being plenty of berries about - not every hawthorn has them, but those that do have plenty - the Mardle was almost thrushless. I eventually tracked a fair-sized group of Redwing [30+] with a few Fieldfare [11+] down, staked out a good spot and waited. They weren't playing ball, however. A group of 5 Fieldfare did fly low overhead and didn't alarm at me [which is a point] but then another one pretty much came up to me and said rude things about my Mum [two to them]. Cue big surprise; until now, Redwings had outnumbered Fieldfares 3 to 1, but suddenly a flock of 83 Fieldfares arrived! They settled down by the farmstead - well out of range - and seemed to be working the other way. I thought 'Sod this, time for direct tactics'.

It was as I made my approach to the line of Hawthorns they were feeding in and around that I flushed the Woodcock - fortunately, they didn't go too - and it is with no small amount of satisfaction that I can report that I not only got in to comfy binocular range, but also got the scope on them from that close and then got out without flushing them.  Victory!

In all, there were at least a hundred of both Redwing and Fieldfare around Holne Moor today, with 5 or more Mistle Thrushes accompanying them. It was also wonderfully quiet - single dog walkers on the track each way was it. I saw a lone walker on Buckland Beacon and another on Bench Tor but nobody closer. The wind was light, the sun shone, the bracken was like wrought copper... Bliss.