Sunday September 20 - more birds in the bushes

 I was joined by Dave this morning, keen to tell me all about the birds he saw in Suffolk over the course of his recent holiday. He'd done well, and for a while this morning I thought he'd brought the birds back with him.

It was a bit cloudy at first and there was a moderate north-easterly blowing. We reached the end of the start of the access road at Netherstead just in time to witness the passage of a massive flock of tits. About a dozen Long-tailed Tits accompanied similar numbers of other tits, and at least nine Chiffchaffs and two Blackcaps. Suitably encouraged, we were at pains to log every warbler we could find across the site. We came up with figures of 17 Chiffchaffs and six Blackcaps. I felt sure we'd beaten the patch record count for Chiffchaffs, but it has turned out that we missed it by one bird.

Adding to the general feel of the day were small flocks of finches. Most were the usual Goldfinches, but we also noted a significant increase in Redpolls (20), and Siskins (18). These were flying around constantly, intermixed with Meadow Pipits (24). The birding felt good.

Inevitably things quietened down as the morning progressed, but we did find a solitary Whinchat in the pool field.

Whinchat, distant as ever.

The flash field contained the usual suspects; 38 Teal, three Wigeon, 22 Lapwings, at least one Green Sandpiper, and seven Snipe.

Snipe

Green Sandpiper

At least the waders were a little closer than they had been on my last visit. At one point a flock of hirundines appeared (we had seen none at all until then) and we estimated 14 House Martins and three Swallows before they were suddenly gone. Migration in action.

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Back at Netherstead we found a Small Red-eyed Damselfly on the pools and the usual hawkers and darters zipping about. Meanwhile the fence alongside us was found to contain four Stonechats. 

Three of the Stonechats

Attempts to get all four to pose nicely were unsuccessful. It was still a positive end to an enjoyable morning.