It has been a lovely sunny week and the easterly breeze has brought us a few little tastes of autumn with small numbers of Siskin, Lesser Redpoll and Chaffinch on the move along with increasing numbers of Skylarks and Meadow Pipits building up on the marshes.
Cetti's Warblers are staking their winter territories and some of the migrant Chiffchaffs have also been singing a bar or two. There are still Goldcrests to be found but October is the main month for these amazing little migratory balls of fluff. Most will have come across the sea from Scandinavia but many moons ago I found one on the seawall one cold winter's morning that bore a ring. It was only a few months old having been ringed somewhere near Inverness during the summer.
Cormorants and Little Grebes have been fishing regularly in front of the MDZ and the Kingfishers have been using the perches once again and the Bearded Tits have been showing very well indeed at the Dragonfly Pool while Marsh Frogs are still active and sometimes vocal.
Marsh Frogs - Steve Gregg
Cormorant - John Humble
Little Grebe - Mark Vale
Bearded Tit - Mark Vale
Hobbies are still around with surprisingly an adult or two still out hawking dragonflies and Lawrence got this great shot of this fine adult perched up in the Cordite Store.
Migrant lunch - Dawn Cowan
There are now quite a few autumnally brown ducks on Aveley Pool including several silvery Pintail and russet headed Wigeon. Teal and Shoveler are slowly acquiring their finer plumage but the first two species mentioned have some catching up to do!
The Mute Swan family is slowly breaking up with two of the Polish youngsters going it alone while their parents take a well earned break.
A reflective Dad (HTV)
Spider time is also upon us and the marsh is strewn with the silken webs of Orb Weavers. Most are constructed by the common Garden and Furrow Orb Weavers but if you look you may be lucky enough to find a huge globular Four Spot Orb in shades of olive green through autumn yellow to vivid chestnut orange. She may not be our biggest spider but she is the heaviest...
f
Another wasp meets it's match. - both by Lawrence Rogers
Small Copper and Speckled Woods are still to be found in sheltered spots and Red Admirals have been nectaring on the last of the Buddlia.
Small Copper - Jerry Hoare
There are still hoverflies on the wing too with the odd Volucella zonaria and Eristalis intricaria to be found along with some vivid Syrphus ribesii vying for a spot on the pungently scented flowering Ivy with the now huge number of stripy little Ivy Bees. The noise is amazing!
Eristalis intricaria - Yvonne Couch
Syrphus ribesii - HTV
Ivy Bee - HTV
So as we head into October tomorrow with the wind still blowing from the east it would be nice to think that we might draw in a Siberian waif such as a stripy little Yellow-browed Warbler along with the first proper waves in Redwings and finches and a likely increase in wildfowl and lapwing numbers. It feels like the best bit of autumn is finally here...
30-9-15