Thursday August 19 - So much better

 You may have picked up on a rather negative vibe attached to my last post. Well today proves you've just got to forget the bad day and try again.

For a start the weather was better, sunny intervals and a light south-westerly. Admittedly I arrived to discover I'd forgotten my notebook, and as a compulsive note-taker this could have been an issue. But no, I soon found a hedgerow with plenty of warblers in it. They were mainly Whitethroats, plus a gorgeous Lesser Whitethroat. Enough to lift the spirits.

I reached the old pool field and soon spotted a distant Whinchat, the first of the autumn. I decided to walk on the pool side of the hedge in the hope of sneaking up on it. As it turned out, three quarters of the way along the hedge there was no sign of it. But scanning produced something better, a Tree Pipit, first of the year.

Tree Pipit

It was showing well, pumping its tail methodically. It was tempting to switch to video mode in the hope the bird would call. Shortly afterwards, a call was heard, but it was from a spot to my left. There was a second bird present.

The second Tree Pipit

Annoyingly, every time I stopped filming, one of the birds would call. Eventually I managed to film the second bird as it called. In the following clip the bird calls twice soon after the start, listen for a short "speez" call. I'm not sure what the other calls are. I have heard Tree Pipits making sort of conversational "seep" calls, but it could be a young Wren or something nearby.

I moved on to the flash field which was a little disappointing. The 41 Lapwings were still present, but there was only one Teal, one Green Sandpiper, and one Snipe. I flushed a Sparrowhawk as I approached and maybe that was the reason for the shortage of birds.

Back at Netherstead I counted 92 Goldfinches as they flew out of a birch tree.

It's nice to reflect that although this year's waterbirds have been uninspiring, I have seen just about all the passerine migrants that are likely in a year. There's no negativity here.