Monday October 2

Mostly cloudy with sunny intervals. A fresh westerly breeze.

The breeze left me wondering what to do as I left the car at Netherstead. However, my mind was quickly made up by a steady stream of Meadow Pipits heading south. I logged them, and anything else which was obviously moving, and got a final tally of 75 Meadow Pipits, three Swallows, five Redpolls, and two Siskins.

In the chat field I counted at least seven Stonechats again, but had the feeling there might be one or two more than that. A single male Blackcap showed briefly in the hedgerow there, while Chiffchaffs eventually totalled six.

Stonechat

The pool offered nothing at all, but most of the birds in the flash field were on the nearest scrape. I counted 178 Greylag Geese, 61 Teal, 16 Mallard, three Grey Herons, five Snipe, and the Greenshank (which I only heard).

Most of the Greylag Goose flock

As usual the late morning added little, although I did flush a Green Sandpiper from the dragonfly pond.