1 68 MY NATURE NOTEBOOK. 



BIRD MIGRATION RESUMED. 



October 23. Only on one day between the I2th 

 and the 22nd of October was it possible for 

 migrant winter birds to come to us. This was the 

 1 8th, when the wind turned from west to east, and 

 enabled the first fieldfares to reach the east coast. 

 With them came numbers more of hoodie crows, 

 rooks, and jackdaws, as well as some snipe, and a 

 few belated house-martins bound for the far South. 

 Many other birds came, too, of course ; but some 

 only added numbers to the flocks which had arrived 

 earlier, with the golden plover, bramblings, siskins, 

 and redwings, while others, like the ring ouzels, were 

 so few and so rarely seen, or else, like the woodcock 

 and the shorteared owl, so solitary and secretive, 

 that, unless one chanced to see them actually arrive 

 upon the coast, it was not possible to say with 

 certainty that they came on any particular day, or 

 merely chanced to be seen then for the first time. 



THE FIELDFARE'S ARRIVAL. 



In the case of a bird like the fieldfare, however, 

 there is no mistaking the date of his arrival ; for he 

 always comes and remains in flocks, and his alarm 

 cry of "chak-chak" notifies every passer-by of his 

 presence in the fields. Comparatively few fieldfares, 

 however, managed to get over on the i8th, and it 

 was not until the 22nd that the wind veered sufficiently 

 to the north again to allow the tide of winter migra- 

 tion to resume its course. The promptitude with 

 which birds avail themselves of a favourable wind 



