Once again it was a very hot and sticky day, with only a short respite as a bank of cloud drifted over mid morning, giving a few spots of rain.
A five hour walk from pre-dawn offered up a good total of 48 species, with two of those being of particular note, the first was found in the Greenhouse Grounds, that being my first
SEDGE WARBLER (
100,
64) of the year, my 100th patch species for 2012 :-) The second was found at Migrant Alley, later in the morning, when an early MEADOW PIPIT was heard flying over, I tracked it and watched it alight on a fence line, where I got a distant photo of it, this is only the second record of Meadow Pipit for the month of August, the other record was last year which was my earliest, it arrived a day earlier than this bird.
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| First Autumn Meadow Pipit |
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| First Sedge Warbler of 2012 | |
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Two omissions from todays list were the College Spotted Flycatchers and the Whitethroats from the Greenhouse Grounds, have they left already? There were still a few BLACKCAPS about though, they were seen at the College Grounds, Greenhouse Grounds and at the Scrubby Woods, the only other summer birds were the SWALLOWS over Migrant Alley, which had 4 HOUSE MARTINS with them today, and a sprinkling of CHIFFCHAFFS over various parts of my patch.
Three raptor species were seen hunting, they were SPARROWHAWK, KESTREL and PEREGRINE, and as yesterday, large numbers of HERRING GULLS, with a few LESSER BLACK BACKED GULLS moved across my patch to and from various cropped fields, also moving locally were hundreds of CANADA and GREYLAG GEESE, there noisy skeins making for a nice spectacle in the early morning light :-)
A few of the scarcer species were found in the Scrubby Woods, the likes of BULLFINCH, TREECREEPER, COAL TIT and NUTHATCH, but Long Tailed Tits remain very elusive this month.
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| If only the Sedge Warbler had given me a photo op like this BLACKBIRD did! |
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| This GREY HERON was amongst the flyover species today |
7 comments:
Well done on the Sedge, always nice to get new birds for the year and a half decent shot as well for the record. It was rather hot again!
Far too hot Marc,
All the birds skulk off by 10:00hrs!
Sedgies seem very thin on the ground this year, don't think I've seen a dozen yet! Nature reserve used to be crawlin with them, think there's more breeding pairs of Cetti's there this year!
Cheers
Davo
Must be hot outside my thermometer is sayin 35.7 C don't feel like it - rainin again!
Sedgies are always thin on the ground here Davo :-) I only get 1 or 2 passage birds a year, maybe more if there is a Maize crop nearby.
Warren ,
Well done on reaching your 'ton' ,and a nice species to get you there .
Not surprising that some species are elusive with the heat , but it is due to cool down , I hope .
Well done with the first two sightings Warren. I don't see or hear Sedges on my patch but did see and hear them further afield last week, my photos of them went in the bin though!
Lovely Blackbird photo...too non Summer though ;-)
Now now Warren. Spotting a warbler and getting a visible shot is a pretty accomplishment. Warbler shots are impossible:) But you glad you spotted the little bird.
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