It's June but the year-ticks keep coming

It's rather cool for June, but there was a reasonable amount of sunshine and not too much wind this morning. I had the place to myself today, and although there were no waders to see at the Flash, I still managed one year-tick and one other noteworthy bird.

The year-tick in question was a Grey Wagtail, more notable for the date of occurrence than the fact that it turned up on the patch. This is usually an autumn bird here, and my first ever in June. However, they breed along the rivers Arrow and Alne, so they are not too far away. The sighting itself was rather brief, I heard an odd call and searched for the bird, expecting  a Yellowhammer, and then got onto a very long-tailed Wagtail with a flash of white under its wing as it appeared to drop over the brow of a ridge. I retraced my steps and heard more of a classic call, but this time my view was obscured by a thick hedge, and that was that.

My second good sighting was a Grey Partridge, which I flushed from where the bridleway crosses the footpath. I had a very good view of it as it banked and then dropped into long vegetation near the centre of the field. It was a male, so perhaps the female is tending eggs or young somewhere.

I spent the rest of the morning trying to photograph passerines. They fall into two categories: easy ones that sit relatively still for you, like this Goldfinch

A Goldfinch attempting to tap dance

and difficult ones which spend most of their time flitting out of shot, or hiding behind leaves, like this Common Whitethroat

There's a Whitethroat in there somewhere

Several species now have young out of the nest, and I saw Treecreeper, House Sparrows, and Goldfinches with young in tow.

Its still poor for insects, but I did manage to see Large Red Damselfly today.

The year list now stands at 102, a figure I achieved by the end of April in 2011, but not until early August in 2012.