Sunday September 13 - Cup half empty

What can you say about September ? Its kind of exciting, but mostly frustrating. In many ways today was entirely typical. The weather was ... bleah. A light south-westerly (again), largely sunny, nice. Dull. 

Any County Bird Report, even in the West Midlands, will give plenty of grounds for optimism. Rare waders, storm-blown seabirds, even scarce passerines stopping briefly on migration. But the reality is almost always different. Almost always. Its the hope that keeps you going.

I'll give you three classic September birds. Meadow Pipit, Chiffchaff, and Blackcap. The former flies south each September and, as with today, the skies are filled with "tsip" calls as they bounce their way past. I logged 40 this morning, a typical count. Chiffchaffs are everywhere, but if you don't know their call you will barely be aware of them. "Hweet" sounds accompanied me all morning, and my estimate of eight is surely too low. Finally, Blackcaps. They too are far easier to hear than see, but the problem is that their call, a hard "tack" is not enough to identify them. You have to see them, and that can be tricky. I logged seven today not including several unseen tackers and some sub-song I suspected to be coming from a Blackcap.

I reached chat field and was immediately encouraged. At least three Whinchats and three Stonechats were present. I suspected there were more, but the picture was complicated by a small flock of distant Goldfinches which also chose to perch up as distant blobs.

Whinchat

I made my way to the flash field, by which time much of the early passerine activity had miraculously disappeared, even the chats vanished.  Sadly the flash field is unlikely to save the day when there is no mud. I counted 48 Teal, a Shoveler, and 14 Lapwing before concluding that not much else was present.

Lapwings and a few Teal

In fact there was another wader, but nothing to cause the heart to miss a beat. Tucked away in front of the reed mace was a sleeping Snipe.

Snipe

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was just about that. On the walk back I did find a pile of small birds going nuts around a particularly dense section of hedge. I'm sure there was an Owl in it, but nothing flew out, and I couldn't see the cause of the fuss.

A quick moth update: The trap went out in my garden on Friday night and the following morning revealed 46 moths of 13 species. The only one new for the year was a Lunar Underwing, a smart one. It was an entirely typical and common moth at this time of year.

Lunar Underwing

A lot of the other moths were somewhat worn and hard to identify, but my best efforts resulted in no reward.

And I was stung by a wasp.