At 06:00, when I got up this morning, it was raining hard, at 13:00 as I left work it was still raining hard!! I got soaked on the way home, but as soon as I reached my house the rain stopped, so it was a quick change of clotes and out again.

Greenie left a comment on yesterdays post about how good it was to see a pic. of Migrant alley. So today i'll take you round the farmland part of my patch in photographs!

I leave my house, going right, down Ashes lane 200m or so, and turn right into the tree nursery, below.
This is a view looking back across the nursery, the way I came in, you can see the Greenhouse complex left middle, its behind here my walk ends.

Above is a photo slightly to the right of the last one. It shows the old shack that the Barn Owl Roosts in. In the nursery were LONG TAILED TITS, a WHITETHROAT, and a CHIFFCHAFF amongst the common stuff.

Above is the small pool of water, its situated as I come out of the nursery, it's about half the size of half a tennis court and is fed from the drainage ditch along the tree nursery.

Above and below ar some of the fruit to be found along the next piece of habitat.

Below is where the fruit came from, its the hedgerow that leads to migrant alley, on the left of the hedge is the tree nursery, and I look through here to see the Barn owl roost. On the right is the southern border of my patch the A26. Halfway up the hedgerow is an indent of set-aside land, about the size of a tennis court, its was here I recorded my last Grey Partridge back in 2006. Way off, 300m or so, is ashes lane again, I cross it into migrant alley.

The next pic. is from Ashes lane,at the end of the above hedgerow, this is the view of migrant alley you get initially.The maize field is on the left, behind the tree.

Below: Halfway up Migrant Alley and looking left, along the maize crop and one of the horse paddocks

And below is the view, turning right, at the same point as above. It shows another horse paddock, then the college sports field. (see the floodlights) behind the sports field is the college grounds

Below is the end part of Migrant Alley, I turn right at the end of the building to access the stream, that runs through the college grounds, then cross the stream to the grounds proper. Thats only on a full circuit though. Today I'm going left through the narrow strip of scrub/woods at the north end of the paddocks.

Next pic. is the path splitting the scrub/wood area

Below is the view at the end of the scrub/wood as I turn right into the sheep pasture. The fence across the middle of the pic. represents the NW boundary of my patch. It has a wet ditch along its length. On a full walk I take the route along it, turn left along the tree line which takes me to the Greenhouse complex.

Below: Today I took the shorter route, the left hand side of the field. The maize crop is now on the left, as is the scrub/wood area. You can see the Green house complex. Ashes lane and the tree nursery are behind it. My route takes me to the extreme left of the green houses, where my skywatching seat is situated. Well thats it! well done if you stayed with me! it takes about 2hours to cover - at a birdwatching pace!

This little pool below, is at the end of the ditch, that runs along the boundary fence. This is where I took some of the Dragonfly pics.

The opening day of the month proved an unremarkable one. September can be a good month on my patch migrant wise, and the total species list for the combined Septembers is 81, so it should be possible to see a varied assortment of birds - just not today!
The walk to and from work was silent, apart from the ROBINS, they have found their voices again these past few days. This afternoon I walked to the lake, just a dozen MALLARD there, with DUNNOCKS, Robins, BLACKBIRDS and the mix of Tits in the scrub area. I walked back through the tree nursery, nothing here but 3 GREEN WOODPECKERS, and the small pool of water just up from the nursery had just 2 MOORHEN on it, picking a living from the ever diminishing water level. Up the hedgerow leading onto Migrant Alley I again wondered why nothing was on the berry laden Elder and Blackberry bushes, however I did see a SAND MARTIN go over, battling against the strong SW wind. I looked over the hedge and across into the Barn Owl roost, but it wasn't home. Migrant Alley was all but empty, even the usual LINNETS were few, only the SWALLOWS and PIED WAGTAILS showed in any number. It can only get better from here on!!

Green Woodpecker at the tree nursery

Empty fence posts at Migrant Alley.