Wednesday October 6 - Limbo

 This morning dawned bright and sunny. The wind had dropped to a light westerly, and although a scan of the Internet gave little cause for optimism, I set out for my birding fix. 

It's clear that the winter visitors have not yet set out across the North Sea, so there certainly wouldn't be any in Warwickshire. I had it in mind to check up on the Whitethroat, hoping it had extended its stay to become my latest Midlands record. Predictably, there was no sign of it, and in fact I also recorded only three Chiffchaffs and no Blackcaps or any other warblers. Three Swallows did remain. The first were two juveniles high above me in the blue, one apparently playing with a floating feather. It repeatedly caught and then released it, before deciding to move on.

I occasionally heard Meadow Pipits, Siskins, and Skylarks calling, indicating that some level of passage was going on, but against a deep blue sky it's too hard to find them. I settled for trying to find things to photograph.

Pied Wagtail

A scruffy juvenile female Blackbird still moulting

Mistle Thrush

By the time I reached the flash field, sometimes the saviour of the day, I had amassed a motley group of common British birds with nothing rarer than the Mistle Thrush shown above. 

The flash field failed to deliver....spectacularly. Five Teal were literally the only water birds seen. 

OK, how about insects? I counted three Red Admirals and a Speckled Wood before turning my attention to dragonflies. There were quite a few darters flying around, and one Southern Hawker. Darters can be quite hard to identify, but I reckon I saw both Common Darter, and Ruddy Darter.

Common Darter

Ruddy Darter (note the narrow centre of the abdomen)

Three Stonechats were still present, a Raven was flying around calling, a Marsh Tit and three Goldcrests came to my attention. 

But I'm clutching at straws. It was just very quiet, we're in limbo. Caught between the last birds of summer and the first of autumn. But it won't be long now.