Getting thrush

Monday morning, followed Willow down the garden to see if a Y-brow had dropped in overnight. Suddenly aware of a lot of Redwing calls over head. Through the half-light it became apparent someone had left the gate open in Scandinavia and a torrent of Redwings were now flooding in over the North Sea. I was simply captivated, as wave after wave of these dudes headed west straight over my head. Occasionally flocks switchbacked in to feed on the haws down the lane next to the orchard. Soon, Fieldfares came over, with occasional groups of Song Thrushes. A wheeze, and three Brambling flicked in, landing briefly in the big Ash, before heading on west. More and more Redwings. They were coming thick and fast; my counting reduced to estimates in tens. One flock contained over 500. I set out to stretch Willow's legs round the fields. The thrushes continued non-stop whilst I did the entire circuit and continued as I walked down to the station. I counted nearly 150 whilst standing on the platform. Awesome stuff! I just wish I had the day off! Apparently there were 40,000 over Sandy later. Philip texted me at 8am to say 'there are a lot of thrushes over Cambridge'. I can't imagine how many birds went over that night and morning, but presumably a large proportion of the Scandinavian population. Maybe the westerlies had backed them up and then with the change in the weather, the floodgates opened. I reckoned there would be some good birds found soon...I was right.