Last weekend..

As we enter November the vis mig season at Ferryhills is coming to an end although I might squeeze a bit of more out of yet.
Birds were mainly in low numbers last weekend in bright crisp conditions although it's just the sort of weather Woodpigeons like to move in and a classic time of year for them. I had 490 over on Sunday which is a site record but a pretty unremarkable count compared to many watch points; FH just doesn't seem to be attractive to passage pigeons. They may well follow the wooded ridges inland to the North of Ferryhills.
Last weekend there was a sudden increase in reports of Hawfinch from the other side of the Forth in Lothian suggesting birds  starting to move north from the unprecedented influx south of the border.
I got one at FH on Sunday although it was sods law that after standing at the watch point for 3 hrs the bird took me by surprise as I walked off, I heard it calling several times but couldn't locate it high in the blue sky.

All of 8 of the  Northern Bulllfinch are still around, still rather elusive although I managed some good views on Friday 3rd Nov. The lighting conditions make a real difference to how easy it is to judge the subtle differences in underpart tone in males  from British birds. The duller lighting conditions last Friday really emphasised the paler pink tones on this male Northern: