Thanks to volunteer Phil for his sightings report and photos.
My colleague Gary reported earlier in the week about autumn arriving on what was actually a beautiful warm late summer’s day. This was of course from a bird migration point of view but seemed incongruous regarding the weather. Today the weather proved decidedly autumnal and I quickly abandoned any ideas about resuming my search for the elusive brown hairstreak butterflies. There was in fact very little butterfly activity apart from a good view of some small coppers at the bottom of the zig zag path in a rare brighter spell.
Also here I had a very curious sighting of a redshank as pointed out by my colleague Keith who appears to have a better knowledge of plants and flowers than I do. I’d not heard of a redshank plant before and yet it appears to be related to the persicaria I have in my garden at home.
I made my way to the Hanger intending to check out the wood sandpiper sighting reported by Gary and others, as this is not a species I’m familiar with. Scanning all the pools there was not a wader to be seen. However a short spat between 3 crows and a marsh harrier was noted with the harrier then going down onto a kill not to be seen again. There was a brief glimpse of a peregrine flying into the usual willow and causing some noisy commotion amongst other birds perched there. A hobby flew purposefully across but not low enough to suggest it was hawking for dragonflies and then repeated the fly past in the opposite direction. A buzzard circled over the brooks in the direction of Banks Cottage. It was proving a better day for raptors than I’d had for some time and I wondered if this might be something to do with the increasing numbers of wildfowl.
Out on the North Brooks I noted a much larger group of Canada geese than the previous week with good numbers of greylags once again. There were plenty of teal as per last week but now mixed in were mallard, a solitary shoveler, and a few gadwall, none of them easy to pick out in the rather dull light. A single great black backed gull stood out though.
I re-examined all the pools for waders and picked up a solitary sandpiper like bird busily going in and out of emergent vegetation on the far side of the farthest pool. Could this be the wood sandpiper? It wasn’t easy to make out the plumage in the dull light even with the telescope at maximum zoom and there were no other waders nearby to compare it with so I couldn’t make a positive identification.
With rain threatening I was forced to seek shelter in Nettley’s and was able to see two green sandpipers fly into the small pool about 20 yards in front of the hide. Even there they were hard to see because of the long rushes, which I anticipate may be cut down soon by our wardens in preparation for next year’s wader breeding season.
There was a good view of a pale buzzard perched on a fence post but a raptor similarly perched to the left proved on closer inspection to be a classic case of wishful thinking in the shape of a woodpigeon!
With the rain easing I moved quickly back to the Hanger to have another look for waders, Instead I increased my raptor count with a kestrel perched on a fence post and had a chat with a couple of regular Friday visitors who reported seeing several spotted flycatchers in the heathland and Black Wood areas in the morning. This is a key migratory species seen here at this time of year, although there have been sightings occasionally over the summer leading to speculation that some birds may have bred on the site. The visitors also reported wheatears and stonechats on the South Brooks.
I then moved quickly on to Winpenny Hide with no to time to linger in Adder Alley as the weather was once again closing in. There, with the rain drumming noisily on the roof, I noted that there had been a lot of mowing done in the nearby field in readiness for next spring’s breeding season. It would have been a great vantage point to look for yellow wagtails amongst the cattle if there had been any present. These birds, also a key autumn migratory species here, like to feed on invertebrates which are stirred up by the cattle’s hooves. Instead I had to peer through the rain and my scope at a distant group of cows near West Mead but they were too far away to pick up any signs of wagtails. However I did spot another possible raptor on a distant fencepost behind, maybe a peregrine, but with the rain still hammering down it wasn’t easy to make out. A visitor had reported seeing 2 peregrines from Winpenny in the morning.
Another lull in the rain prompted another quick dash this time to West Mead but there was no time to linger at Redstart Corner to look for redstarts. However West Mead proved to be a wonderful vantage point for lots of bird activity. It still had a little open water in which a greenshank and 2 green sandpipers were feeding. However more entertainingly a group of about 30 hirundines were constantly scooping up insects while swooping over the pool and mud. I quickly identified a sand martin and wrongly classified the whole group as such. Photographic evidence suggests that most were swallows. Once again the poor light was not helping identification.
The large group of cattle seen earlier from Winpenny were now behind the bund to the left of the pool with their hooves well hidden, so not ideal for spotting yellow wagtails on the ground. After a few minutes they all bounded away to join another group about 100 yards away more in the open. There was no obvious sign of any birds going with them but movement on the mud beside the pool proved to be a small group of yellow wagtails in much better view.
Then I suddenly became aware that the rapid swooping of the swallows and martins was being augmented by a large flock of goldfinches – probably in the region of 100 birds. These were being attracted by the plentiful thistles and ragwort on the edges of the pool and on the islands. Most of the birds proved to be juveniles lacking the characteristic red face of the adults. However at least goldfinches are easy to identify in poor light!
Happily the rain kept off sufficiently to allow another dash back to the visitor centre to warm up over tea and cake. I reflected on a complete contrast with my previous week’s visit and, despite the rain, a welcome return to birdwatching rather than looking for elusive butterflies. Autumn is always an interesting and varied season for birds here.