October has a sound that is easy to miss. It is not the church bells from the village. It is not Winston policing some movement at the far end of the field that only he can see. And it is not yet the full, settled quiet of winter.
It is smaller than all of those. Step outside on a still evening after dark, wait for the house behind you to stop making its noises, and you may hear a thin, high “tseep” somewhere overhead. Then, perhaps, another. Then nothing at all for a while.
That is very possibly a redwing, passing over in the dark.
A small thrush from the north
Redwings are winter thrushes. A very small number breed in the far north of Scotland, but the birds that reach the south of England each autumn come mainly from Scandinavia and Iceland, arriving from the second half of September and staying until spring. The redwing is the UK’s smallest true thrush: slightly smaller than a song thrush, dark brown above and streaked below, with a creamy stripe above the eye and rusty, orange-red flanks and underwings. The red is the giveaway, and the source of the name.
They travel largely at night. The “tseep” is a contact call, a way of keeping in touch with other birds in the dark, and on clear, calm autumn evenings it is one of the more reliable signs that migration is happening above your head whether or not you are paying attention. October and early November are when arrivals peak, which makes this month the right time to start listening.
Why the High Weald suits them
Once they have arrived, redwings are birds of open country: fields, hedgerows, orchards and the edges of woodland. They are nomadic, moving on wherever the fruit is, and they feed on berries — hawthorn and rowan especially — as well as fallen apples and worms from the ground. A redwing that spends this winter in Sussex may spend the next one somewhere else entirely. They are not loyal to anywhere.
The High Weald, with its small fields, thick hedges and scraps of ancient woodland, is a reasonable place for a bird like that to stop. It is not a guarantee. Very little about wildlife is.
What we can and cannot say about Martins Farm
Martins Farm has field edges, old apple trees, hedges and long grass: the sort of places a passing redwing might reasonably investigate. But we do not have a verified record of a redwing on the estate. We have not seen one and confirmed it, and we are not going to pretend otherwise because it would make a nicer story.
So this is an invitation, not a claim. Listen.
In daylight, if you are lucky
By day, redwings are wary birds that tend to move in loose flocks, flicking out of a hedge and away across a field before you have quite focused on them. They often travel and feed with fieldfares, their larger, greyer-headed cousins. Look for a smallish thrush with that pale eyebrow and a flash of red under the wing as it lifts. We cannot promise you will see one. Nobody honest could.
The rest of October
Around the estate, the season has moved on in its own way. The swifts that worked the air over the yard all summer have long gone. The evenings are shortening noticeably. The hedgerows are carrying fruit, and the crows are working the field edges. Further afield in the High Weald, October is the fallow deer rut, best left to the deer parks and a respectful distance rather than attempted with a dog.
A five-minute October field exercise
On a dry, still evening, step outside after dark — safely, with a torch, and somewhere you already know underfoot. Turn the torch off once you are standing still. Give it five minutes.
Ignore the first dog bark. Ignore the second dog bark. Ignore Winston entirely if a balloon is involved.
Listen for something thin and high, coming from above rather than from the hedge. It will not be loud. It may not happen at all. That is rather the point: you are listening for something that is simply on its way somewhere else.
Tell us what you hear
If you genuinely see or hear redwings while you are staying at Martins Farm, please tell us: when, where and what you noticed. That is how a field guide becomes a record rather than decoration. Until then, we will keep them on the list of things to listen for, not the list of things we have found.
Some of the best things to notice at Martins Farm are not attractions. They are simply passing through.
So this is an invitation, not a claim. Listen.