Autumn Adjourns

The blog posts have dried up because autumn has...

It has been really stagnant out there for the last week and a bit (but boy have I been trying!). We had a sudden and surprising influx of Grey Plover at the end of last week, Phil had a staggering nine on the evening of Thursday 22nd, with one still present for me the following morning. On Sunday morning another couple had arrived/returned to make three...

A true record shot!

Bar-tailed Godwit numbers seem to be dwindling now, but other wader counts have been very samey with less than ten Dunlin, a couple of Ringed Plover, five Common Sandpipers and not a lot else. I'm hoping the upcoming new moon along with some wind and rain will encourage a bit more variety, but it's looking like the Black Hole Marsh autumn is done now, as the marsh often seems to largely lose its appeal to wading birds by the end of September.  

The clear skies and light winds this morning meant there was only one place to go, Beer Head...

It's getting towards my favourite time of year for weather - I just love cool, crisp and blue late autumn mornings.

Overall it was pretty quiet, but it was nice to see a few different bits and pieces - this list is a mixture of grounded birds and fly overs;

14 Skylark 

200+ Swallow

80+ House Martin

11 alba Wagtail

2 Grey Wagtail

100+ Meadow Pipit 

1 Whinchat

2 Stonechat

3 Blackcap

5 Chiffchaff

1 Spotted Flycatcher

c30 Chaffinch

1 Siskin

1 Yellowhammer

In brief, the bushes were quiet and overhead a little less quiet!  The lone Siskin I think confirms my suspicions that this isn't going to be one of those amazing Siskin autumns - hopefully this won't be the case for all the finch species though.

Annoyingly for some reason all the subjects I tried to photograph this morning were in some way obscured...

Whinchat - the clearest of them all.

A hiding Spotted Flycatcher.

Even this Small Copper suffered from a blade of grass!

It was nice to see Ian Mc at Beer Head this morning back fresh from his holidays, he ventured further west than I did and saw another two Whinchat and a Reed Bunting.  It's great to have another pair of eyes back on the patch, I get the feeling coverage has been pretty poor on weekdays this month - there's only so much ground one pair of boots can cover!

Birds aside, I've been seeing the odd Clouded Yellow around which is nice, including a male on Beer Head this morning.

Let's hope the next blog post is a bit more exciting...

Insects Save Otherwise Photo-less Post!

Beer Head showed a bit more variety this morning, with the bushes giving me my first Garden Warbler of the autumn, two Whitethroat, three Blackcap and 15 Willow Warbler. Two Wheatear were the only birds of note in the open areas.  It was nice to see a Wall Brown whilst wandering around - this is one of the few places left on patch where you can see this species...

Showed well too!

I also saw my first Clouded Yellows of the year today, with two at Lower Bruckland Ponds. They didn't stop moving though, and when one did it was playing hide and seek...

Peek-a-boo!

The reason for my visit to Lower Brucklands was to look for Small Red-eyed Damselflies. Sadly there is almost no suitable habitat for them on the ponds now, with a distinct lack of floating vegetation. There's just one small pond which does have lily pads and weeds, and after a short while I eventually spotted a single male. Only the one though...

Hang in there buddy!

To get this post back to bird news - the female Tufted Duck remains here.

Mid morning I had a look around the marshes, with the highlight being a Wood Sandpiper on Colyford Marsh scrape, along with a Greenshank and two Green Sands.  The Wood Sand appeared only for a couple of minutes, had a preen and wing stretch, then flew off NW. Good chance it was a new bird as I don't think the two last week have been seen all weekend? I may be wrong though.

On Black Hole Marsh there's now 40 Black-tailed Godwit, the Ruff still, but much smaller numbers of Dunlin and Ringed Plover than last week. 

And that's that short post done and dusted. Hope to give Beer Head another look in the morning - I want a Whinchat...

A Big Fat Patch Tick

...and I mean that literally!

About half an hour after I received a text from Ian Mc this morning, I was stood in the corner of a certain field up Beer Head alongside Dave Helliar with our scopes lined up... another half hour later and BINGO...

Up popped the Corn Bunting, and spent the next five minutes on view amongst a dozen or so of its yellower cousins. It didn't stay settled on any one branch for long though - hence why I have no photos! And when it disappeared after this five minute view, it didn't show again up until when we both left (40 minutes later).

I have to say, I don't think it is as 'grotty' as Gav made out! It's a smart juvenile sporting a rather stripey face with a great big honker and a pair of lovely pink legs! What's the saying...'beauty is in the eye of the beholder'. One thing it certainly is though is FAT! I swear I saw the entire hedge compress when it landed on top!

To prevent this being a photo-less post, from something big brown and (ok, a little) bland, to something small orange and (very) beautiful...

Small Copper

This was a welcome distraction at Lower Bruckland Ponds from my continued failure in finding my own Wryneck! I could list all the places I have looked for one today....but shan't!

Actually whilst butterflies are in my head, I've seen three Clouded Yellows on patch within the last five days. I've been meaning to mention these over the last few days but keep forgetting!

Last night, I had a moth trap out in the front garden. Total waste of time; 8 Setaceous Hebrew Character, 2 Lesser Yellow Underwing and singles of Large Yellow Underwing and Flounced Rustic. All I want is one of these....