Early morning once again find me sitting on a bench in the Cordite Store woodland waiting for 'interesting things' to happen. There is a distinctly autumnal feel today with low cloud and hazy light and the fact that both Meadow Pipit and Reed Bunting have flown over high hints that things are on the move. Robins are singing all around and have moved into melancholy mode while there seems to be more than usual ticking from the brambles.
A Hobby us currently sitting in the chestnut in front of me and had done a lazy circuit to get those whippy wing muscles warmed up and seems completly unphased by my presence. The first hawkers are on the wing so it will not be long before he starts feeding. The Long-tailed Tit flock has just come into view too and as well as Blue and Great Tits there are also several Chiffchaffs and sylvia warblers in amongst them. Both Whitethroats and Blackcaps are there each with their own 'tacking' dialect. Wonder if they can understand each other?
Still hoping for a Redstart to flick out and flash his firey red tail but as I type this a Green Woodpecker has laughed at me so perhaps he knows something I do not!
3-9-12
Howard Vaughan, Information Officer