Late arrivals

Winter thrushes have been conspicuous, by their absence, so far this Autumn. I'd heard a few Redwings, calling in the dark in early October but  it wasn't until the end of the month that I recorded my first Fieldfare of the season. Both species have remained low key ever since. I recorded a flock of, 30-ish, Fieldfare on Saturday evening, whilst out on the marsh, by far the largest flock of the autumn, yet Redwing numbers haven't even made double figures; all very strange? This isn't a Newlands Farm/Thanet thing, this is what I have experienced around the portion of "The Garden of England" which stretches from New Romney (to the south) up to Ramsgate, incorporating the Royal Military Canal and marshes in between. Basically, the parts of Kent where I have been fishing!
I'm no longer an "active" birder, so there will obviously be other pairs of eyes which can offer a very different slant on the autumnal migration of these, splendid, birds into East Kent. I now consider myself little more than a, very, casual observer - I honestly couldn't give a monkey's about official records and committees - a complete waste of a lifetime; from my perspective. (Don't bother posting a comment - I fully understand that this is the perception of angling for many other folk who, also,  derive pleasure from being outdoors). Doesn't prevent me from enjoying my encounters with the bird life which crosses my path, just of no importance to anyone else; never was or could be!
The bird sightings, plus occasional photographs, are nothing more than embellishments for a blog post, they certainly don't appear for the purpose of informing the masses (aka - Rare Bird Alert!)

How I wish that this had been taken a couple of days ago - sadly not - Jan 2013
In The Old Rose Garden before it was reclaimed as farmland - because we don't have enough acres of
cauliflowers on Thanet!

So there I was, making my way home past the remnants of "The Old Rose Garden" when I flushed a group of eight Fieldfare. Wow! Newlands 2017 and this is big news! I had no camera gear, but that made not the slightest difference. I was thrilled that such an event had been witnessed by myself during a very ordinary working day. Simple pleasure derived from the most ordinary of encounters - means "jack shit" to anyone else and long may it continue!