CHAPTER XIX 



AUTUMN ON THE MOORS 



(3) October — concluded 



October is a busy month with bird-life. Already the 

 ducks alone have occupied almost a whole chapter ; yet 

 the half remains untold. I must perforce give short shrift 

 to those regular winter migrants that come crowding 

 across the North Sea during the later part of the month. 



These comprise, as regards the moorlands (omitting, 

 as a rule, those species of which some individuals have 

 nested here), fieldfares and redwings, bramblings, siskins, 

 grey crows, short-eared owls, and woodcocks ; together 

 with a sprinkling of the larger raptores, such as hen- 

 harrier, rough-legged buzzard, osprey, and similar irregular 

 visitants. 



Redwings arrive early in October : fieldfares a week or 

 more later, their average date being the 20th. When on the 

 sea-coast, my brother Alfred and I, sitting outside on fine 

 October nights, used to hear the fieldfares making the 

 land between 10 and 11 p.m. These had left the Norway 

 coast at sundown ; thus covering the 400 miles in five or 

 six hours. 



While migrating, fieldfares utter continually a peculiar 

 low single pipe, quite different to their ordinary note. I 



