Winter Migrants

Yesterday I heard the first distinctive call of over-flying fieldfares. This morning, some were feeding on the hawthorn berries in the hedgerow.
A grey wagtail feeding on insects round a large puddle at Sutton Valence.

Singing Skylarks

A flock of around thirty skylarks has descended upon the stubble fields in front of the house. With this unseasonably warm weather, they have been induced to sing, which is a very welcome addition to the sound scape here.
Along with the pheasants, it appears that quite a few partridge have recently been released on the estate and I have seen at least three separate coveys over the last few days.

Goshawk

A small flock of birds flew noiselessly overhead. Not an unusual occurrence, but then I noticed that one of the flock was quite different from the rest. It soon became clear that what I was watching was a flock of about eight jackdaws (strange for them to be silent) surrounding a bird of prey. Too big to be a sparrow hawk it could only have been a goshawk.

Heard a skylark briefly giving song this morning from the mist.

Hobby

The long hot summer has now become a very mild autumn and a consequence of this appears to be the late migration of some of our summer visitors. I have see several warblers (chiffchaff or willow warbler) over the last week, but most unusually, I saw a hobby over the fields.
I imagine that the hobbies had a very successful breeding season as there were so many dragon flies around this year, but I would not expect to see one in mid October.
The linnets have just returned to the stubble fields they occupied throughout last winter. At the moment the flock amounts to about thirty individuals, but I would expect that number to rise over the coming weeks. There are still some skylarks on the fields, though no song.