Sunday September 18 - red letter day

September can be a frustrating month at Morton Bagot. All the expected summer migrants have been seen, and it is too early for any late autumn scarcities to turn up. Until today, it was all going along rather predictably.

Shortly after Dave joined me we spotted a nice Whinchat posing on a hedgerow near the dragonfly pools.

Whinchat

We strolled on along the access road until we were clear of the copse. Several small flocks of Canada Geese had gone over, and I had actually commented to Dave that it was a pity none of them had a Barnacle Goose in tow. It was therefore somewhat surprising when the next flock, this time about 40 strong, did indeed include a tiny Barnacle Goose. It took a few seconds to get Dave on it, and shortly after he latched onto the bird, the whole flock disappeared below the rise. So no photo.

Although this was a first for Morton Bagot (as far as I know), and was certainly my first, it also stands less than a 1% chance of being anything other than a feral/escape. But everyone else (except for a few honourable purists) counts them, so its going on the list.

The best, however, was yet to come.

A large flock of hirundines, about 60 House Martins and 20 Swallows, were hawking insects over the copse. We were standing on the access road watching these birds, in between checking the copse for other migrants, when some hirundine alarm calls caused us to spin round in the hope of a Sparrowhawk or a Hobby. Instead, a large dark bird was flying towards us, and I momentarily thought of Cormorant until I realised it was a Buzzard....or was it?

As it got closer I realised that the underparts were a smooth dark blackish-brown colour with no pale pectoral band which is almost always shown by Buzzard. Oh heck. The tail was a little longish, the head protruded a bit. Dave must have been going through similar thoughts as we both, simultaneously blurted out HONEY BUZZARD. Although I had my camera around my neck, there was no time to do anything with it. The bird was in active flight, but with a more languid and deeper stroke than is typical of Common Buzzard. I thought the centre of the tail tip showed a slight notch. But before we could get anything else on it, it had flown past us and behind the copse.

At this point we decided on different strategies. Dave ran towards the road hoping to get a view of it beyond the copse, while I remembered a gate in the opposite direction. On arrival I quickly saw the bird again, still purposefully flapping south with deep, slow wingbeats, and I managed to fire off a few distant record shots until it disappeared over Clowse Wood.

As record shots go, these are the pits. But hopefully they convey the long-wingedness, and un-Buzzardlikeness of the bird. It is very likely that the bird was a juvenile, as they tend to be either very dark, like ours, or very pale with a dark face mask. Quite different from the adults.

After that, the remainder of the visit was always going to be anti-climactic. Not that we cared. We saw about six Chiffchaffs and three Blackcaps in the hedgerows, a Green Sandpiper, two Snipe, and 59 Teal at the flash field, and a number of insects.

Hornet

Comma

Back at the car I noticed that the Woodpigeon was still sitting on its "nest".

Silly sod.