Friday September 21 & Sunday September 23

During a pretty stormy weekend I was unable to resist taking a quick look at the Flashes on Friday in case it had been the beneficiary of a Grey Phalarope visit (there being five at three sites in Warwickshire as a result of the storms). It hadn't.

Instead I was left to count 51 Teal, a Shoveler, five Green Sandpipers, and two Snipe.

This morning the rain again intervened, causing a later start and messing up Dave's plans for his first visit in three weeks. As the rain abated just after 10.00 am I arrived to find a new dawn effect as numerous small passerines hunted the insects now emerging into the drying canopy of the Netherstead Plantation. To be fair most were Blue Tits (about 30), but there were several Chiffchaffs and best of all a Spotted Flycatcher. The first two Siskins of the autumn flew south calling.

In many ways it was a typical late September day, characterised by frequent views of Jays, hundreds of other corvids (mainly Jackdaws), 100 Stock Doves, 80 Woodpigeons, 120 House Martins, a few Swallows, and 110 Meadow Pipits. The latter appeared in a large loose flock over the grassy field south of Stapenhill Wood. I decided to investigate the field and flushed the cause of the panic, a juvenile Peregrine clutching something small, presumably a Meadow Pipit, in its talons.

The hunter

The hunter with victim

The prey

The trans-African migrant warblers have now gone, but some of the shorter-distance migrants still remain, and I counted six Chiffchaffs and four Blackcaps as I walked around.

Meanwhile the Flash field contained the same species as on Friday, but fewer of them. The only one bucking the trend was Greylag Goose. The flock now numbers at least 240.