Sunday September 11

A lovely sunny morning with barely a puff of wind, and pleasantly warm.

I made a small diversion on the way to Netherstead so that I could photograph a line of hirundines on the wires at the church.

Mostly Swallows

A sure sign that autumn is on the way. Although this particular group consists mainly of Swallows, it later became apparent that the very large number of hirundines milling over the site were dominated by House Martins.

Once I had reached Netherstead, and was joined by Dave, we quickly found ourselves knee-deep in migrants and unusually high numbers of some scarce residents. To begin with we estimated 470 hirundines as a minimum figure, and decided that the split was roughly 300 House Martins and 170 Swallows.

Three Mistle Thrushes headed north-west, the first since the spring, and seven Jays flew past. Five Ravens also went over. The hirundines were constantly being alarmed by raptors, and we saw three Sparrowhawks, two Hobbies, and the immature Peregrine. The latter was more interested in some passing feral/racing pigeons and headed over us with a luckless bird clutched in his talons.

The warbler count was buoyed by a record count of 10 Blackcaps, as well as three Lesser Whitethroats, about five Chiffchaffs, and a Sedge Warbler.

Sedge Warbler

I mustn't forget to mention that there was a constant trickle of south-bound Meadow Pipits, and our final figure of 39 undoubtedly underestimates the true numbers moving through. There was also an inexplicable passage of Lesser Black-backed Gulls today, with a final total of 24 heading south.

At the pool where I photographed the Sedge Warbler and saw we saw most of the Blackcaps, we blundered into a Kingfisher, which might have made a good photographic subject had it not seen us first.

A little further on, a Whinchat graced the hedgerow bordering the pool. The pool itself contained a large flock of Teal, a Little Grebe, and a Greenshank.

Greenshank

Predictably the Teal and Greenshank were unable to bear the sight of us creeping past, and they all headed for the flash field. Here we added a Green Sandpiper and counted 107 Teal. A Yellow Wagtail, and second Grey Wagtail of the morning flew over unseen. I was particular irritated by not seeing the Yellow Wagtail as it was only my second this year, and both were heard and not seen.

The walk back provided the usual insect distractions, with a Small Copper posing well, and a female Migrant Hawker dangling from a nettle.

Migrant Hawker

Finally, in bushes near the Ridge Field, we heard a call which neither of us recognised. It repeated it several times. I would describe the call as vaguely sparrow-like but buzzier, a sort of "zieeoo". Eventually a small party of Goldfinches flew out and closely following them a brown finch-like passerine which didn't immediately trigger any memory cells. Dave reckoned it had some kind of pattern on its head, while I noted it had two narrow white wing-bars. Neither of us noted white in the outer tail feathers. It was a bit bigger and longer in the tail than the Goldfinches. We could rule out all the familiar birds on call, including juvenile Linnets and Greenfinches which I know sound more sparrow-like than the adults.

It flew off across the field with the Goldfinches, and though we set off in pursuit, we did not see or hear it again. Our best guess is that it was some kind of escape, but definitely not the Yellow Bishop which has been seen here this year.

All in all a very entertaining morning.