Osprey, Merlin and Yellow Wags

Not the best pics, but I chose the right moment to take Harry for an after-work walk down Black Hole Marsh last week (Thursday I think so a week ago today).  My fourth Osprey of the autumn flew in from the north, spent a few minutes looking interested in the upper Estuary, but then headed off high east never to be seen again... Well not by us anyway, I didn't mean for it to sound quite so final!

Whilst on the raptor theme, I jammed another patch Merlin too! Not an easy species to see at any time of year here, in fact it is easy to go a whole year without seeing one at all!

It was during a really quiet wander over Beer Head on Monday morning (day after Ortolan - I figured all the usual Beer Head birders would be on Axe Cliff!), bushes were dead and not even a Wheatear to look at!  But near the end of my visit a juvenile female Merlin flew right past my head and made it all worthwhile!  It even pitched up for a minute or so...

And although it was otherwise a quiet walk, it wasn't grounded migrant-less thanks to a group or 32 Yellow Wags around the cattle.  It is always a pleasure spending any time with this species, especially as their numbers are already thinning out as they move off south...

I have been so lucky to have a flock of these for over a week right by my office, although the last day I was working I didn't hear one all day, so suspect they have moved on now as the cows are still there.  And before I move on I should just mention the bird in the second pic down, which showed a clear grey-green head both in the field and in the pics. Nothing more I can do with it, but it certainly looked like it could well have been a 'something'-headed Wagtail.

I've got an exciting visit to Axe Cliff to tell you about too. Yes, I know I have already told you about the Ortolan Bunting, and have mentioned it again umpteen times since, but a couple of days before that I had my best day of the autumn up there for numbers and variety.

Although I do like birding Axe Cliff, and now choose it over Beer Head, as I mentioned in my last post, it is nowhere near as good for 'bush birds' as Beer Head.  So by Axe Cliff standards, the morning of 7th Sept was very very good!  In an hour and a half I noted singles of Redstart, Whinchat and Tree Pipit, three each of Spotted Flycatcher, Whitethroat and Wheatear, five Grey Wags, seven Yellow Wags, ten Chiffchaff and 15 Blackcap!  Not bad at all.  Almost nothing posed for a photo, although as always that didn't stop me trying...

Whinchat

Wheatear

Before that have just had small numbers of Tree Pipits, Wheatears, Whitethroats, Willow Warblers sporadically at Axe Cliff, and way back on 22nd August my only Lesser Whitethroat of the autumn so far...

A very distant Lesser Whitethroat

Equally distant Wheatear, but I did a better job of photographing it!

Well that's me all up to date with birds, so now to insects...

I have only had the moth trap out on a couple of nights since my mammoth insect post.  Scored with another first for the garden though, and another big moth!  This one had red underwings not blue like the last monster I caught...

Some of the other interesting moths noted included my second garden records of Feathered Gothic...

And Pretty Chalk Carpet...

And probably my fourth garden Gem, an immigrant species...

On the Odonata front, there's still plenty of Migrant and Southern Hawkers about, and of course Common Darters. Butterflies are again plentiful in this recent warm weather, including heaps of Red Admirals, slightly fewer Small Whites and pleasingly a few Clouded Yellows too. I saw four males in one field in Branscombe today, which gives me some hope for tonight's moth trap because it must mean some sort of insect migration is underway. Fingers crossed!