5th September 2021

I’ll start with this picture from last weekend, a Little Egret perching ahead of a storm, just because I like it! Seeing them against the corvids really shows how small they are…

I photographed the same tree yesterday and it still had plenty of crows…

but this time their focus was a buzzard. I thought they were preparing to mob it but it seems they were just after the offcuts!

Migration doesn’t feel as though it has got into full swing yet but there were one or two decent sightings since I last wrote. On the wader front I had Whimbrel flying over the Swale and Andy heard a Greenshank calling as it followed the course of the river. Curlew numbers are also starting to rise and John and Anne had more than fifty birds in one of their meadows on Langlands.

Andy had a Hobby last week and Chris was lucky enough to spot a Red Kite over Warbler Corner this morning. It’s perhaps surprising, given the growing population not that far to the south of us , that this is only the second record for the year (less surprising that I have missed them both!)

Chris also found, and photographed, this young Redstart on the path to Thrintoft this morning. 

That stretch of fence and bushes seems to be the place for migrant chats…

Lots of phylloscs on the move during the week and I had double figure counts of both Chiffchaff and Willow Warblers in the Magic Garden…

Along with at least one Sedge Warbler (depressingly my first of the year).

It has also been a relatively good week for dragonflies with Brown and Southern Hawker in the Magic Garden along with at least half a dozen  Migrant Hawkers…

And I also had at least ten Common Darters, making the most of the sun…

It seems to be a particularly good second period for Speckled Woods this year and I had 40-45 in the Magic Garden this morning. For some reason they really dislike Migrant Hawkers!

Finally, at one site along the river the farmer has put up a single strand wire fence, to stop the cows swimming across the river to eat the willows and Giant Hogweed(!), but this protection from grazing has meant the plants have had a chance to grow. There are no rarities here but compared with the usual bankside vegetation of a few nettle and thistles it is much more interesting. Amongst the plants were Common Restharrow , masses of Tansy, Water Forget-me-Not…

...Marsh Woundwort, Amphibious Bistort, Goldenrod, Yellow Loosestrife and Soapwort. This is the only place I have seen the latter two species in the parish. It feels quite heartening that a small change in management can have this effect.