Counting martins

Last Saturday was one of those rare vismig moments where you don’t really want to leave. As soon as I arrived at New Barn it was a clear a big south-west movement of House Martins was taking place, with a non-stop stream of birds piling in from the north and east, all tracking the east side of Hascombe Hill – the biggest gap in the High Weald Ridge – and moving onward. It was truly breath-taking. After a couple of hours, it wound down, but I was left with a new record count – 1,209 in total.

House Martin, New Barn, 8/9/2018.

With them were just 73 Swallows, and two Sand Martins. The first Meadow Pipits of the autumn, a Tree Pipit and two frustratingly distant egrets made for a highly enjoyable and varied session – not really what you expect in early September. Other, non-vismig bits over the weekend included the continued Black Redstart, one each of Yellow Wagtail and Wheatear, two Spotted Flycatchers, the first Great Black-backed Gull of the season and probably the last Whitethroat, Garden and Willow Warblers of the year.

Certainly, the latter fact seems likely, a probability enhanced by my lack of time on patch this week. In fact, it’s been none at all, with a busy working week, shortening days and windy evenings meaning I haven’t even been able to strap my virtual reality birding mask on and do any nocmig. However, it seems this September is proving similar to last year, with south-westerly winds dominating – no good for the inland patcher really, so hopefully I’m not missing much...

That said, news today of a covey of Grey Partridges being seen on one of the estates this week is exciting news, but not quite as gripping as that of a long-staying Osprey on private land, some metres beyond the patch boundary. It’s safe to say I’ll be out first thing tomorrow, waving a salmon around deliriously.