Dry with an easterly breeze was the forecast for this afternoon, it was niether, I got a real soaking as I walked home from work! The rain left off around 3:30pm, but as I had started cleaning my garden feeders, I finished that job off before venturing out for an hour, just before dusk.

Although it was just a short visit, over to my sky watching seat at Migrant Alley, it wasn't without some interest , I watched a loose flock of 14 SKYLARK drift over south, and a steady procession of both BLACK HEADED and HERRING GULLS went NE. The SPARROWHAWK was after a late afternoon snack, it glided over the Greenhouse Complex eying the many PIED WAGTAILS that gather there pre-dusk. I was surprised to hear, then find a CHIFFCHAFF in the tall hedge by my seat, where DUNNOCKS, ROBINS, and BLUE TITS were gathering, as well as a few BLACKBIRDS, of which more dropped in from the sky, I scanned them carefully in case one turned out to be a Ring Ouzel, but no luck today. Other bits included 7 MEADOW PIPITS that dropped into the sheep pasture, 4 flyover FIELDFARE, and two REDWING all going south.

Tomorrow looks a brighter day, but unfortunatley ive got to work through the best part of it!

Yesterdays afternoon patch visit was a pretty dull affair, but in comparison to todays it was positively riveting! I walked over to the Lakes and scrubby Woods, visited the Pub Field and Tree Nursery plus a short stop at Migrant Alley, and all that was noteworthy was a couple of flyover HOUSE MARTINS. OK, there was a flock of LONG TAILED TITS with two GOLDCREST in the Scrubby Woods, and a few MALLARD and MOORHEN on the Lake, a TREECREEPER called from the one of the large gardens that border the footpath from the Lakes to the Wet Woods, but it's not very Autumnal at all.

Even Migrant Alley was dull and quiet place this afternoon, just a couple of  MEADOW PIPITS, were seen over flying, with the odd PIED WAGTAIL.

I looked back on my blog at last October, and found that I was seeing much more, a varied mix of species, even in the afternoon visits, with a sprinkling of year ticks and even patch ticks! Ah well, that's patch watching for ya!

A view to the NW - birdless!!