Sunday Aug 25

I was a little later starting than I intended, but by about 9.00 am I was joined by Dave for the first time in several weeks. He quickly earned his spurs by finding the first notable birds of the day as two rather distant Swifts drifted from over Bannam's Wood with about 160 hirundines which were too distant for certain identification. Around Netherstead Farm a flock of about 150 other hirundines, maybe 60:40 in favour of House Martins over Swallows, swooped repeatedly around the little copse.

We strolled to the flash where we were very pleased to see that the two juvenile Black-tailed Godwits were still present.

They remained until 1030 when they transferred to the back flash, and five minutes later flew off strongly to the north. We considered ourselves particularly jammy because we had dawdled on route due to the presence of several passerines in the hedge and weedy field adjacent to the main pool. These included at least nine Common Whitethroats, and four Whinchats.

A distant Whinchat

The latter were originally in the hedge-line, but soon took to the middle of the field where they were really just dots perching on the vegetation. Back at the flash we saw a couple of Green Sandpipers, 10 Teal and a Snipe as supporting cast to the Godwits.

The return walk produced my 110th year tick when we found a Spotted Flycatcher among the willows and ashes beside the brook. Unfortunately I couldn't get a shot of it and eventually we lost it altogether. Meanwhile the day was warming up and a quick sweep of the weedy field produced a count of at least 220 Small White butterflies making the field seem alive with movement. Four Sand Martins flew west, and several more Whitethroats appeared. We decided to return to the flash, but the only new bird was a Sedge Warbler for Dave which disappeared before I could get onto it.

All in all a very successful bank holiday visit.