Thursday October 6

A sunny morning with a light easterly breeze. These are the conditions birders pray for in October, but the question is; would Morton Bagot see the benefit?

Well the first thing I noticed was a complete absence of hirundines. Migration was represented by a few Meadow Pipits, and the first of four Chiffchaffs. A Mistle Thrush posed in the copse.

Mistle Thrush

Indeed, thrushes started to play their part as the morning progressed. At least five Song Thrushes and four Blackbirds were much more obvious than they have been of late, perhaps hinting that some or all may be newly arrived migrants. Definitely a migrant was the first Redwing of the autumn which called high above me, but remained unseen.

Six Snipe did an unexpected fly around at Netherstead, while the day's highlight was just a hundred yards away at the little pond. I scanned the bushes, noting three Lesser Redpolls as they flew off, and then caught a movement at the base of the reedmace. It was not, as I had expected, the local Moorhen. Instead, I was just in time to see a Water Rail stalking into cover. BOOM, as they say. This was a first for Morton Bagot, and not before time. Its taken ten years to get one on the list, and frankly I was beginning to give up hope.

I waited for it to reappear, and waited, and waited. A movement turned out to be this.

A Muntjac coming down to drink

Further waiting produced only a Moorhen. Eventually I decided it was time to give up and continue walking round. A pair of Stonechats were in the chat field, I flushed a Green Sandpiper off the pool, and found another three at the flash field along with 46 Greylag Geese, a Snipe, and 18 Teal.

On the return journey I decided to give the pond one more go. Sneaking in to position I discovered that the Green Sandpiper was on the pool. This was a little bittersweet because although it gave me the chance for a really close photograph, I also knew that as soon as I moved it would be away, calling loudly, and alerting the Water Rail that I was back. And that is exactly what happened.

Green Sandpiper

I waited a few more minutes before deciding enough was enough.

So no Yellow-browed Warblers (there are currently thousands of these tiny Siberian migrants in the country, but only a handful have been located in the Midlands) but a Morton Bagot tick.

I'll settle for that any day.