It was 11th Oct 2006 and the weather looked GOOD !! We’d just had a couple of days of easterlies, and now a front of rain was due to arrive during the afternoon. Having looked at this weather forecast, I decided to take the afternoon off work and head to Newton for a couple of hours.
Arriving at Newton the sky was dark and judging by the puddles there had been some rain already. I parked up at Quarry House and headed towards the Tin Church. It became immediately apparent that the scrub along the private road to Quarry House was alive with activity, large numbers of robins were “ticking” and hopping all over the track, and there was plenty of “chucking” coming from blackbirds in the denser scrub.
As I reached the Tin Church, the first bird I put my bins on was a stunning yellow-browed warbler. This rapidly disappeared into the trees behind the church. I was in pursuit and as I stepped into the scrub behind the church, the ground erupted with redwings and blackbirds. A “chak chak chak..” alerted me to a ring ouzel with them. With every step I took into the scrub more birds flew from the ground. I stopped and scanned through the bushes for a while and it became apparent that the floor was littered with hundreds, possibly thousands, of redwings, blackbirds and robins.
As the birds were many (and exhausted) I decided to stay put for a while and just watch…. Before long, some fieldfares appeared, next a red flash across the opening in front of me turned out to be a male redstart. I stood mesmerised by the sheer numbers of thrushes and robins here…
Seriously excited I decided to press on. As I exited the scrub I had some nice views of the yellow-browed warbler again, there appeared to be very few other warblers though. While there were plenty of goldcrests there was just one chiffchaff and a couple of blackcaps.
Next I decided to head towards Newton Point and check the Tin Church trees and Gorse from the road to the point. Again the place was alive with birds, robins redwings and blackbirds were everywhere. As I headed towards the point I heard “chack chack chack” and two more ring ouzels gave themselves away. In the short stretch of cover between the road and the cattle grid towards Newton Point there must have been two or three thousand thrushes, mainly redwings, but a lot of blackbirds and few fieldfares too.
At the furthest willows from the church towards the coast I heard a “suu-eeeet” that stopped me in my tracks…. Amongst a tit and goldcrest flock another yellow-browed warbler appeared. I alerted a nearby group of birders and we watched this for about 15 minutes before it disappeared into the deeper cover of the large sycamore tree.
It was drizzling now and as I moved on towards the point it became obvious that birds were arriving all the time. Squadrons of thrushes were pouring in off the sea and into any cover they could find, redwings and fieldfares were hoping all over the short grass at Newton Point, I’ve never seen that before !!
I arrived at the compound and was met by Kevin the National Trust warden there. He let me in to have a look around the buildings and timber piles, and we were soon looking at a black redstart amongst the many robins.
Next, I moved on to the point itself, the tussocky grassland here had a number of buntings, I checked them all carefully for that much dreamt about little bunting or rustic bunting, but they were all reed buntings unfortunately.
From the point I went on to Football Hole with high expectations of the bushes there, along the way even more thrushes flew in off the sea, many arriving low and settling in the gorse bank between Newton Point and the Tin Church trees and scrub.
Football Hole was disappointing yielding only a reed bunting, chiffchaff and few blackbirds. Time was getting on and my good intentions of covering Newton Point and Newton Pool had gone out of the window because of the sheer density of birds.
I headed back towards the Tin Church and along the way checked the scrub on the bank between the point and the church. Large numbers of goldcrest were sheltering here, and it seemed like every footstep taken flushed even more thrushes from the cover, most of which headed straight for the denser cover of the Tin Church. At least two more ring ouzels flew out of this scrub “chacking”. As I headed back towards the church I walked along the drystone wall there and I managed to flush yet more thrushes and robins from this cover.
Back on the path next to the church I re-connected with the yellow-browed warbler, and then the second yellow brow next to the road. By now the light was going fast and so I was forced to call it a day.
The following day I visited Newton, but with clear skies the night before many of the birds seemed to have moved on.
Although the variety of species seen was limited, this day will stick in my mind as one of my best ever at Newton. Never before or since have I witnessed such a large fall of birds here, and its always a good day when you find a yellow-browed warbler (or two !) on your local patch. I’m sure many thousands of thrushes must have arrived that afternoon, it was unfortunate that there wasn’t enough light in the day to get down to Newton Pool, who knows what may have been skulking down there !