Cranes

This is my first post for some time, partly because of several uk visitors and a trip to Poland but perhaps mainly because there has not been a great deal to report throughout September other than the expected whinchats, wheatears and pied flycatchers passing through long with a smattering of other common summer visitors.
October is return crane migration time of course and although I've yet to see any myself, my brother reports about 100 over Angouleme on Tuesday. He also reports an early redwing in his garden near Roumazieres.
I had a look back at last Octobers posts and noted that the crane passage began much later then. Curiously I also saw that I recorded 33 species on a bike ride which is the exact same figure which today's bike ride produced.... Although not quite the same 33!
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For me most interesting among them were the dunnocks; I can go several months without seeing one of these birds but today I came across four of them in different locations. It makes me think that they are more migratory than is usually though and perhaps have moved in recently along with the robins which seem to be the commonest species at the moment. Their delicate Autumn song is everywhere.