It was cooler and overcast for this mornings full patch walk, a much more pleasant day than the heat of the past days. The five hour visit was most enjoyable, a very good total of 52 species was recorded, two of those were new for the month, with the Autumns first YELLOW WAGTAIL (66) flying from the sheep pasture at Migrant Alley early on, then  the Autumns first COMMON GULL (67) flew over the Greenhouse Complex, where the SEDGE WARBLER was relocated, plus a WHITETHROAT, two BLACKCAPS and two CHIFFCHAFF.

 More summer species were found at the College Grounds, two WILLOW WARBLERS, one giving some of its lovely song, were flitting along with 5 Chiffchaff, two more Blackcaps were also here, and the SPOTTED FLYCATCHERS were back, all these were mixed up in a Tit flock, in which it was good to find half a dozen LONG TAILED TITS. A small photographic triumph for me was getting a photo of a STOCK DOVE, my first since taking up the camera 4 years ago, this is the 116th species out of the 138 recorded on my patch to have some sort of photographic record. ( Talking of which my gallery has been updated, only birds beginning with 'W' and 'Y' to add now, see the link at the top right of the page)

Flyovers were plentiful today, as well as the mentioned Yellow Wagtail and Common Gull, there were the usual large flocks of GREYLAGS and CANADA GEESE moving around locally, as well as scores of HERRING GULLS, with a couple of LESSER BLACK BACKED GULLS. A YELLOWHAMMER, and 3 raptor species also went over, they being, COMMON BUZZARD, SPARROWHAWK and HOBBY.

In the Scrubby and Wet Woods all the 'sometimes difficult to find' species were located, like TREECREEPER, NUTHATCH, COAL TIT, GOLDCREST and BULLFINCH, the Small Holding chipped in with a LITTLE OWL to make a very nice cast of species today  :-)

Robin - not had a photo of one for a while  :-)

At last a shot of a Stock Dove, not the best, but for my records  :-)

Willow Warbler

Willow Warbler

Chiffchaff

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.

First Autumn Meadow Pipit

First Sedge Warbler of 2012

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.

If only the Sedge Warbler had given me a photo op like this BLACKBIRD did!

This GREY HERON was amongst the flyover species today