Sunday October 16

I'm back, after an essentially non-birding holiday in east Cornwall when all the birding action was on the east coast of Britain! I took my bins of course, and managed a few Firecrests and a couple of Med Gulls during the week. We certainly had great weather.

But this morning it was good to be back on the patch, albeit after waiting for the rain to clear through. Dave joined me, and professed to being a bit down in the dumps after choosing not to return to Flamborough this weekend and still managing to miss some Bearded Tits at Marsh Lane. He then went and found two at Napton Reservoir, so every cloud etc.

Anyway, the initial signs were good as the copse at Netherstead was teaming with birds. Most were Blue Tits, we reckoned about 30, but we did winkle out a Chiffchaff. Two Redpolls and two Grey Wagtails flew over before we dragged ourselves away to look at the rest of the area.

The good signs continued, with 14 Redwings south, about 15 Song Thrushes and seven Blackbirds in the hedgerows, 16 unusually photogenic Starlings, and a Stonechat.

Starling

We carefully sifted through the Reed Buntings without finding anything better. Totals of 46 Teal, 70 Greylag Geese, and 22 Lapwings were seen, mostly as they flew over, while the flash contained a couple of Green Sandpipers and a Snipe. A single Siskin flew over.

Back at Netherstead we were just in time to see a Swallow flying south, just one day short of my latest here, which was in 2010, and a distant Peregrine.

So that was it, nothing spectacularly unusual, but plenty to see. Normal service has been resumed.