Saturday 20 September 2014

Swallows on the move

With work getting the way I have only managed a few visits to the patch this week and to be honest I get the feeling that I may have missed out somewhat.
The overriding thing this week has been the overhead passage of Swallows and to a lesser extent House Martins with birds moving south overhead in good numbers all this week especially on Thursday afternoon when I managed in a 45 min period to log 600 plus Swallow moving south ,with them were a small number of House Martins.
The first good flock of Meadow  Pipits appeared on Thursday with a good count of 170 plus , numbers have since decreased again .
Its fair to say that the hedges and bushes are now much quieter but I still managed to find a Redstart , a few Blackcaps and still quite a few Chiffchaffs.
So on Saturday by the time I managed to get onto the patch it was in the afternoon, less than ideal but I felt that I had missed out in the week and who knows what might have been lurking out there !
It soon became obvious that Swallows were still moving over and 280 plus were logged passing south ,20 plus House Martins were tagging along. In all the years I have lived here this has been the best Autumn passage for Swallows .
Sticking with overhead theme up to 7 Buzzard were on the patch today ,try as I might I could not turn one of them into a Honey Buzzard . One of the resident Raven was touring the patch .
In the hedges were 7 plus Chiffchaff and a flock of 20 plus Goldfinch .It was the pastures that came up with the best bird of the day with a stonking Wheatear, it really looked as if it was a Greenland type. The flock of Meadow Pipits had decreased to just 8 today, the rest having moved on.
There were 3 Skylark today ,with no doubt more hidden in the grass, also heard was a Red Legged Partridge ,the first for what seems like ages.
Jays continue to trickle through with 2 this afternoon ,but just a single Stock dove was recorded .
The best of the rest were a male Kestrel ,Green Woodpecker and a Greater Spotted Woodpecker and the usual build up  of Wood Pigeons which really means that winter is on its way.
With a cold front pushing down from the north this evening it could be a good morning walk.