A lovely sunny morning saw me out on Swinemoor again. Although it was cold, with little wind it was quite pleasant after a little walking had warmed me up. A large flock of Fieldfares and a few Redwaings greeted me as I came on to the common and a few Woodpigeons flew out of the hawthorn scrub.

On the floods the number of species has now declined, seemingly the main autumn passage for shorebirds has already passed, but good numbers of Lapwings (about 70) and Redshank ( betwen 20-25) were present. On my circuit of the common I flushed up half a dozen or so Snipe and saw at least another half dozen feeding and resting in the flooded grass. The, by now, regular 5 Curlews were busy feeding in the company of their friends the Moorhens in their usual spot near the ditch. To me this seems atypical of Curlew behaviour, to be close to a ditch with tall vegetation and plenty of trees in it – wading birds usually prefer a much more open environment. A number of Tree Sparrows were calling from a large tree in this ditch too.

Walking back along the river wall I managed to spot a single male Ruff amongst the Redshank and Lapwings, and a small group of 9 Black-headed Gulls flew in with a lone Common Gull.

A couple of Meadow Pipits lurked around in the tussocky grass and a huge flock of Starlings also came in to feed. The final birds of the walk were 2 first winter Lesser Black-backed Gulls flying overhead – northwards.