Early November

Early November

A period of adjustment in North Cumbria as birds located to their wintering quarters. Two returning American ducks were found, a female Ring Necked Duck at the southern end of Bassenthwaite Lake on the 2/11/08 (where one wintered last year) was still present on the 10/11 and a Drake Green winged Teal at Campfield Marsh on the 11/11/08, again one was present at this site last winter.
Evening watches at Campfield Marsh RSPB continued to be rewarded with a ringtail Hen Harrier present most evenings and almost a 100 Whooper Swans roosting. The Hen Harrier showed very well in front of the hide on the 2/11/08, flushing at least 20 Snipe and a pair of Pintail from the juncas grass, and a Merlin was also present. Fieldfares seemed to appear in big numbers from the 2/11/08 with a flock of c600 near Drumbrugh and several smaller flocks around the Inner Solway area.



The Whooper Swan herd at Bromfield south of Abbeytown swelled to an impressive c225 with another c45 nearby, perhaps accounting for the absence of the regular herd in the Rockliffe area.
A wintering Green Sandpiper flew over Demesne Marsh, Rockliffe on the 3/11/08 and the Goldeneye flock there numbered 49 on the river Eden.
On the Solway an unseasonable Ruff was found at Anthorn on the 13/11/08 and a flock of 22 Black Tailed Godwits were on Campfield Marsh scrape.
The Waxwing influx into Britain started to appear in North Cumbria, with 3 birds near Longtown on the 10/11/08, 40 in Penrith on the 14/11/08 and 13+ in Keswick on the same date. Then on the 15/11 several reported on the eastern edge of Carlisle with 14 again in Keswick and 55 at Penrith. Also on the 15/11 the first substantial flock of Brambling was reported with an estimated 100 in a mixed finch flock of 300 south of Walton.