November Update: a Time to Remember
The Sway War Memorial stands at the corner of Durnstown and Pitmore Lane, and usually marks the start and finish of our weekly patch walk. For the month of November it becomes adorned with poppies and wreaths as the focal point of the local Remembrance commemorations. Thankfully, a brief interlude between storms Ciaran and Debi allowed this event to be marked in the Traditional way, although that weekend was one of just two occasions where the clouds parted and floods receded for long enough to enable completion of our full patch circuit. Unsurprisingly there were no new birds to be added to the list, which still stands at 97 for the year, although on both visits we matched our meagre ‘November record’ species count of 44. As usual, the full lists can be found on e-Bird at https://ebird.org/hotspot/L12697095 . A large influx of Winter thrushes was a welcome sight on our first walk on November 11 th – flocks of Fieldfare , totaling around 150 were seen overhead, accompanied by...