Huge Brambling flock Quantocks
talking of Hawkridge I did stop briefly on the way home from seeing the Brambling on Sunday, just parked up as the sun was setting. 3 juvenile Goldeneye, 4 Great Crested Grebe and a male Tufted Duck
The road was closed today from Nether Stowey to just west of Hawkridge Reservoir making access to the site direct by car difficult though perhaps could walk west on footpath from near Tuxwell Farm, or Adscombe or Aley which lie to the north west. Don’t know how long road closure is for.
Main flock still present late morning and ‘flighting’ over stubble field back and forward to trees by footpath. However, a female/immature Merlin came through, and this activity quickly ceased, the birds seeking the sanctuary of the trees.
>150 Brambling still present this morning
They were still there this afternoon. I took quite a few photos and some shaky phone video, here is some of the video (apologies for the quality):
At one point they were being hunted by a raptor but I’m struggling to ID it. I’ll have to see if I can zoom in and do a slow-motion frame by frame edit of the video.
The main driver of Brambling winter movements is the availability of Beech mast (seeds). It’s been a very good winter for the latter.
Yesterday Paul Chapman and Paul Gregory had an amazing count of Bramblings in the Quantocks opposite The Gatehouse, estimated at 550 birds. The Gatehouse can be found by the road on the east side of the Quantocks and lies between Marsh Mills and Plainsfield, about ST193373. This is the 3rd highest count ever in Somerset, and the highest since February the 2nd 1994 when 600 were present at Screedy Farm, Wiveliscombe. Before that 600 were recorded at Simonsbath in December 1968. Julian Thomas looked today in a brief stop only and numbers were well down but it’s possible there are still large numbers of birds present in the general area.
Higher than normal numbers of birds were reported in October here as part of an iruption across Western Europe, with several three-figure counts, including three counts of 784, 851 and 955. Norway had a count of over 20,000 and France and Holland over 13,000. The reason is not clear but may be because Brambling have had an exceptional breeding season.