Opening Exchanges

The September curtain raiser weekend was another fairly productive one, with a moderate assortment of migrants totted up. The early forecasts of cloud and north-east winds didn’t materialise, and in fact Saturday and Sunday were veritably glorious; not great for vis-mig, but pleasant nonetheless. Personally, the best bird was a Sedge Warbler on The Ridge on 31st – only the third site record, my second, and the first one I’ve actually clapped eyes on!

Sedge Warbler, The Ridge, 31/8/2018.

 The individual was fairly skulking during the 20 or so minutes of observation, either side of sunrise on Friday. Initial views revealed merely a well-marked central crown stripe – enough to get the ticker going, but thankfully some OK views confirmed back-in-the-real-world ID and prevented any Aquatic-induced heart attack. Still, a really, really tough bird to find here, and a great way to kick-off the weekend.

In fact, the 31st was the best of the three days, with a nice north-east wind, heavy cloud cover and early morning mist meaning seemingly every hedgerow and field held at least some life. A Yellow Wagtail flew over, and at Slades Farm three Crossbills chipped their way north. Not bad for a relatively brief morning session, and the conditions warranted a double-shift, so I popped out in the afternoon when I found two Wheatears at Bonhurst Farm, and located the Black Redstart (following three days of no reports).

Wheatear, Bonhurst Farm, 31/8/2018.

The skies had been quiet in the morning but by now there was a big hirundine push, with at least 700 hundred Swallows and House Martins piling east and into the wind. It was probably no surprise then that the evening produced lively nocmig, with the sites first Little Ringed Plover less than an hour after sundown, two (seemingly large) flocks of Gadwall, a Spotted Flycatcher and a Tree Pipit not long before dawn on 1st.

Redstart, Bonhurst Farm, 1/9/2018.

There were clearly still bits and pieces on the move on 1st, with a Spotted Flycatcher and five warbler species at New Barn a good start. A Redstart at Bonhurst Farm was the best of the bunch, a Sand Martin zipped south, but things generally wound down as the cloud cleared and temperature rose. It called for raptor watching, which is rarely dull here, and indeed most of my birding on Sunday was taken up by gazing at the skies. Another Yellow Wag went over in the morning, and a couple each of Siskin and Yellowhammer pointed to colder times ahead, but largely it was quiet and relaxing.

Junction Field, 2/9/2018.

The initially exciting forecast doesn’t look so great now, but there will surely be interesting things passing through, and Surrey seems to be coming to the autumn party (inevitably though uninvited, and likely to sit quietly in the corner for most of the night). Dave H found Surrey’s seventh Cattle Egret at QE11 reservoir on Sunday, and three Great Egrets swung by Barnes WWT on Saturday…maybe there’s more to come in the coming days?

Sparrowhawk, Allden's Hill, 1/9/2018.

There will be a separate and dedicated post for this, but it’s worth mentioning that I had an Ortolan Bunting over on nocmig last week…! I’ll get round to that soon.