Williamson's Weekly Nature Notes - Dec 2 2009

These strange looking birds which are the size of a starling fled first into Scotland during early October and then came south into Wales and the Midlands where there were 14,000.

One flock contained 1,200 birds. By January small flocks had flown down to Midhurst, Horsham, Crowburgh and Southwater.

A flock of 300 lived happily in Southampton gardens feeding on ornamental shrub berries such as berberis and rowan.

It is thought that about 2,000 birds were in Sussex by the end of the winter.

This seems to be a record number counted, just beating the previous best of 1,200 birds in 1995/6.

It used to be thought that these sudden invasions by birds which normally live a comfortable winter life in Scandinavia, was purely due to the failure of the rowanberry crop.

Now it is know that a good breeding year and therefore overcrowding will cause mass migration.

It seems to me nothing less than panic because many flocks do not seem able to stop flying and continue south and west until they run out of fuel.