As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Friday 25 January 2019

Mega flock of 5 million Brambling in Slovenia


Estimating the size of bird flocks is hard enough, as British and Irish birders know when watching a large Starling murmuration such as those at Ham Wall (Somerset), Gretna (Dumfries and Galloway) or Nobber (Co. Meath), all of which have featured prominently on social media in recent weeks.
So spare a thought for Tomaž Mihelič and the other poor Slovene ornithologists of the country’s BirdLife partner, DOPPS attempting to count a roost of Bramblings as it develops in Beech woods along the River Sava, a feeder river of the Danube in Central Europe. A minimum of 2 million birds, but probably as many as 5 million, have descended on an area of about 100 square kilometres, but every night they pack into a patch of trees covering just 5 hectares, a circle about 250 metres in diameter. The exact site of the roost is not being revealed to prevent disturbance but is drawing crowds of locals to watch each evening.

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