It felt, and smelt, like autumn as I walked to the bus stop this morning. The sky was a beautiful bright blue, but there was a chill in the wind that had swung overnight to the north-east. I’d been optimistic choosing a T-shirt, but I’m loathe to put on an extra layer until I really have to!
Walking past a new housing development, I glanced across a patch of ground cleared for building. A small, pale bird standing on the brown earth caught my eye.
It’s not the sort of place you tend to see many birds, so I had a feeling it might be quite interesting. It’s meerkat-like upright stance and the type of terrain it was on made me think it could be a wheatear.
I was right. Pulling my binoculars out of my bag, to the surprise of commuters driving to work, I laid eyes on a lovely little wheatear. Wheatears are always nice to see, but this one was special. Wheatears only pass through my part of the world in spring and autumn and only in relatively small numbers.
This one’s appearance on this patch of bare earth probably resulted from an overnight journey from Scandinavia, flying high and true below the stars before spotting a suitable place to have a rest and a feed up before continuing on its way to Africa.
Migration is amazing enough when you just read about it, but there’s nothing like the thrill of finding a bird like this (particularly in an unexpected place), so keep your eyes peeled.
The next six weeks or so are a time of migration of epic proportions for millions of birds. I’d love to know what you see in your travels, or close to home. Oh, and I’ll let you know if my little patch of bare ground attracts any more migrants!