The odd day still producing some vis mig. At sand point today 1,500 starling, 350 chaffinch, 40 woodpigeon, 500 redwing and 150 fieldfare migrating west. Interestingly a lot headed out towards the headland and came back. Many birds do take test flights and todays crossing was presumably too windy caused by convection wind currents due to the difference in sea and land temperature. Today was the first clear spell for a few days, the wind was westerly and around 10mph. Common Gulls are turning up now. On 17th I counted a flock of 75 in a field south of weston and today 30 were on the Axe Estuary.

Since the 6th November the westerlies have returned. Although strong at time, sea watching has shown that there have been no major movements from any of the sea bird colonies although in the Severn estuary, Kittiwakes were recorded in reasonable numbers on the first big blow on sunday 9th. Wintering birds are around in big numbers. I counted a single flock of 830 golden plover during the week on the somerset levels. Shelduck seemed to be everywhere with 2,000+ birds in sand bay alone. I'm not keen on counting such high quantities and therefore this species I do not monitor but such an influx was too big to ignore. Wigeon counts at the sewage workds have jumped from 100 to 150. Lapwing numbers on the Axe estuary are up to 430. Finch movements still in good numbers over sand point with Brambling becoming increasingly regular amongst them. No sign of the common gull influx yet. Otherwise, good numbers of wintering birds are turning up along the eastern half of the UK. Many Blackbirds, Redwings, and Fieldfares arriving along with smaller numbers of Waxwing, Woodcock and snow bunting with the odd Long-eared Owl and Shorelark thrown in.

Today was the calm before the storm. There was no wind at brean down this morning and fog combined with low cloud made it very dull this morning. Birds went through in three directions. The ones coming in/off the sea were flying over high whereas the ones traveling over land were much lower. The chaffinch flock size and frequency was different too. Instead of regular small flocks of around 20-30, it would be quiet for a while and then a flock of 100 would fly over. The biggest flock size was 300. In all around 1,000 chaffinches went through by 9:30am. Plenty of rewards for the rarity hunter to be had on the east coast. Red-flanked Bluetail seems to be a favourite at the moment with Olive-backed Pipit, Raddes Warbler, Rustic Bunting, Desert Wheatear and Hume's Warbler also being found in the last few days. Waxwing numbers on the up with now well over 1,400 in the country (mainly in Scotland).

Still good conditions for new arrivals but as always with successive days of favourable weather the numbers are smaller. For me, 450 chaffinch, 36 skylark, 22 fieldfare, 35 brambling at sand point were about what could be expected. Wader numbers are up with 222 dunlin, 17 grey plover, 2 golden plover and a bar-tailed godwit in sand bay. A female Scaup at the local sewage works was a new arrival. The easterlies are set to drift away by the weekend with the return of a low off the atlantic.

The lows certainly have picked things up and got them going again. Thrushes and starlings have been around in big numbers. For me, friday (31st) was the big passage day with 6,000 starlings heading north. The bushes were alive with blackbirds, song thrushes and redwings. Further up river, M.Hobbs had impressive vis mig at New Passage the day after (1st November) with 5,589 Redwing, 4,861 fieldfare, 1,529 chaffinch, 920 starling and 240 woodpigeon. 2nd November was completely dead at Brean Down, the pulse of birds had clearly gone through. On 1st the clear spell came to and end with heavy nimbostratus cloud rolling in early saturday morning. Matthew mentioned a late pickup in numbers over New Passage starting around 9am and peaking around 10am. I noticed many thrushes leave the bushes at Brean Down after 9am and wondered if this was a coincidence or whether the birds did in fact sense some weather change and start moving. Checking the weather the heavy cloud rolled in, the air pressure started rising and the wind picked up during the morning so maybe something is significant here. Today although quiet produced singles of hen harrier, common scoter and goldeneye as new arrivals. Waxwing numbers approached 600 with the main concentration in scotland.