Stroke of luck with Cuckoo Divert

Friday update from RBA

Autumn walk at Lickey Hills

Last Thursday brought the news a Yellow-billed Cuckoo had been located in Cornwall no doubt swept up the back end of Hurricane Gonzalo. The normal crew were all set for a Saturday early hour twitch only for me to suffer some chronic stomach ache causing a last minute cancellation. The feeling of not being able to go and letting the boys down was not good but it did feel much better when the Cuckoo was not located at all during Saturday or at all again ! Very lucky !

Late afternoon we headed up to the Lickey Hills on the edge of Birmingham for nice woodland walk with the wife. I was hoping to find my first Bramblings of the winter however I had to settle for some very close view of Goldcrests and Treecreeper. 

With the constant south westerly winds the influx of wintering thrushes has yet to really get going. From my 4th floor office I have picked up a few Fieldfare, Redwings and Starlings going over but nothing dramatic. Let's see what next week brings.