Bush bashing

Sunday July 29. This is a good date for what is sometimes described as bush-bashing, although all it means where I am concerned is spending extra time trying to see passerines in the hedgerows. From the end of July to the middle of August there is a combination of lots of juvenile birds, and the start of passerine migration which means you have the prospect of modest success in finding something different. Part of the spark this morning was having a very brief view of a possible Garden Warbler. I spent a considerable time trying to relocate it, without success, in the course of which I logged passerines which included 20 Blue Tits, six Chiffchaffs, several Whitethroats, a Lesser Whitethroat, a Blackcap, a Nuthatch, and my first juvenile Willow Warbler of the autumn.


A juvenile Willow Warbler

Juvenile Willow Warblers are much prettier birds than the adults, having a suffusion of lemon yellow across the underparts. There have been none breeding on the patch, as usual, so this bird was certainly a migrant.

Earlier, the Flashes were looking good, containing 83 Lapwings, 10 Green Sandpipers, two Common Snipe, and a Teal. There were plenty of hirundines around, particularly noticeable when it started raining and they were swooping low around the copse opposite Netherstead Farm. I also saw two Essex Skippers and a Marbled White.