Overnight rain was followed by a largely sunny morning with a moderate southerly breeze. Dave and I arrived at just before 09.00 am and within 30 minutes were staring at a bird in a quite remarkable plumage.
As you may have guessed from the habitat, it was a Reed Bunting. On the face of it a pure albino, but some darker feathers in the secondaries and tail suggested it may have been exhibiting an extreme symptom of leucism. Fortunately it behaved and sounded like a Reed Bunting. Within a few minutes it took off and headed south. It is proof that even apparently resident species actually migrate to some degree, since I suspect we might have noticed it if it had been around all summer.
The rest of the morning passed pleasantly enough. We recorded the first four Stonechats of the autumn, had a distant view of a late Whitethroat, and scanned through the hordes of House Martins still milling about (at least 44), until I eventually spotted a single Swallow.
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| Stonechat |
The pool has very little water in it, but still enough to support a single Little Grebe. The flash field was much busier than on my last visit. We counted nine Green Sandpipers, 17 Snipe, 28 Teal, and 26 Greylag Geese.
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| Little Grebe |
The return journey had very little extra of interest, although a Painted Lady butterfly flew passed us at Netherstead. The Woodpigeon is continuing to sit on its nest despite the fact that the stone has been moved out of the nest cup. So it has not been psychologically damaged by the stone's removal, perhaps by the bird itself, although it is obviously in need of psychiatric care in any case.
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