Fieldfares & Redwings

On a brief trip back to Halifax this week I was taken out on a "industrial history tour" by a local historian. The only relevance that has to this post is the almost complete absence of Fieldfares & Redwings seen on an 8 hour walk around a large part of Calderdale. We walked along the canal from Elland to Salterhebble, along the Hebble Trail to Halifax, though some minor backroads and paths I never knew existed to Rowntree Macs, then back up Southowram Bank to the Magna Via, up to Beacon Hill, down to Shibden, then to Sunny Vale, back up to Southowram and thence along the hills to Park Wood and Elland. In the whole walk I saw ONE small flock of around 15 Mixed Redwing and Fieldfare near the Farm shop at Southowram in a hedge feeding on Hawthorn Berries. Is this a particularly poor year so far for these species or was I just unlucky ? I would have expected to see far more numbers of both species in the largish area covered in a days walk.

I was particularly keen to see some flocks of these two birds and they are only around in very small number near my home in North Wales and I had hoped to see them in their usual numbers in Calderdale as I particularly like these two handsome species.