Little Auks and Rutting Deer – must be autumn!

With a brisk North-Easterly wind yesterday it was off to the Humber Bridge to see if any sea birds would be blown off course from their journey down the east coast.  With a handful of Little Auks appearing on the pager Wayne was determined to find our own and after 3 or 4 hours of watching the Humber he finally picked up a Little Auk in the scope but no sooner had he picked it up did it land on the choppy water which made it impossible to locate.  However around 30 minutes later he picked up two Little Auks flying back East up the Humber – these were my first Little Auks on the Humber after 20+years of watching every November for these tiny sea birds – we haven’t checked the records yet but these are possibly the earliest records for Humber Little Auks.  Also at the Bridge was an adult Mediterranean Gull and both myself and a stunning Bittern had a surprise as I flushed it from no more than 10 metres from my feet on the edge of Pit 25 – and on the same pit 14 Goldeneye and a Pintail signified autumn is definitely here.
So to today a beautiful frosty sunny start with lots of winter thrushes in the Yew Tree at the bottom of the garden – 8 Redwings, 2 Redpolls, 3 Song Thrush, 2 Mistle Thrush and 6 Blackbirds with a Brambling flying overhead.  As it was also quite foggy we thought it would be a good day to try to get some better photos of the Red Deer rutting in the Park – things have moved on with up to 5 Stags now contending for top position and my friend with the damaged eye is also hanging on making himself heard – but most of the action today was taking place in the conifer plantation so unfortunately not good for photography as it is in deep shade however a few brave souls wandered into the sun light…….
This Little Auk is not one of our two – this one was found on the beach at Dungeness tonight by my brother down in Kent!