Paul Matson's Birding Blog: August 2021

Wednesday August 11th - Autumn migration underway ?

The rain had stopped on Monday, yesterday was quite productive for raptors with a Honey Buzzard, Goshawk, Hobby, Kestrel, Sparrowhawk and Buzzard and this morning I wanted to visit Black Down to see if there was any sign of migrating birds. It often improves through the month with sometimes the best numbers at the end of the month or early September.

I wasn't too hopeful for the first hour. I had 3 Crossbills fly over but it all seemed very quiet until I reached the Southern end. Firstly a bird shot past me into a nearby pine, it was a Pied Flycatcher ! a decent local rarity. It stayed at the top of the tree until dropping to a nearby birch but mostly out of sight before it seemed to melt away. There were families of Stonechat and Dartford Warbler in good numbers, I was scanning the pines to see whether I could pick up the Pied Fly again and I caught of glimpse of something flycatching that landed on a branch in the Scot's Pine, surprised to see it was a Wheatear. Not sure I've seen a Wheatear in such close proximity to a Nuthatch and a Coal Tit before. A bit further down the track and I found 3 Spotted Flycatchers, it definitely started to feel as if autumn migration was truly underway. I retraced my steps and eventually came across a bird party being headed up by Long-tailed Tits but included c40 Warblers, most of which looked like Willow Warblers with a few Chiffchaffs, 2 Blackcap and 4 Whitethroat. I then saw another Wheatear back on the Reservoir track, so a very productive morning for here.

The Rowans on site look fairly berry-laden and even a few of the Whitebeams have some berries unlike last year, which might be good for autumn Ring Ouzels.

Wheatear

Unusual to see one hawking insects in a Pine tree

Wheatear

Spotted Flycatcher

Dartford Warbler

Willow Warbler

Another Wheatear

The Pied Fly was fleeting - so a poor pick with it's back to me was all that was available

Saturday 7th August - Summer blows

It has been fairly awful weather this Summer so far, a lot of rain and a fair amount of wind. Storm Every was due to blow through at the weekend so I thought I would give seawatching a go at Selsey as the winds were due to be Southerly.

It had been quiet all week and as it turned out it continued to be this morning for the 3 hours at Selsey Bill with some of the other regulars. The highlights list was fairly thin with just 4 Kittiwakes, a Fulmar, several Sandwich and Common Terns and the usual number of Gannets.

A brief stop a the Ferry Pool on the way back was marginally more productive with 120 Black-tailed Godwit, 90 Lapwing, 2 Avocet, 5 Common Sandpipers, 24 Dunlin and both Cattle Egret and Little Egret as well as 85+ Swifts all moving South.

Saturday 24th July - Beach Holiday 24th to 31st July

One of the other things we booked in lockdown was to rent a bungalow in Bracklesham for a week s a family holiday partly encouraged by friends who had also booked the same week just 2 minute walk away.

The weather was definitely not beach weather with a fair amount of rain but mostly very strong SW winds. However we were pretty close to the Medmerry part of Pagham, so I managed to sneak away and made 4 visits here during the stay and had a reasonably good list of mainly waders visiting the Stilt Pools with the highlight being 2 Wood Sandpipers (the day I didn't take a camera !), 6 Common Sandpipers, Green Sandpiper, Avocet, Little Ringed Plover, Whimbrel, Snipe, Curlew, Redshank, Oystercatcher and Dunlin. A few Swallows and Sand Martins were moving through and a female Marsh Harrier was seen. The field edges held a good number of Yellowhammer, Goldfinch and Linnet.

Yellowhammer at Medmerry

Yellowhammer

Common Sandpiper on the Stilt pool

Egyptian Geese - surely one of the world's greatest colonisers.

June 25th - Cambridge week 25th June- 2nd July

This week away was a strictly no birding week.... or so I was told. Back in February in the midst of lockdown Sally saw this barn for holiday lets and booked a week on the off chance we would be able to go. Neither of us had been to Cambridge itself before so we booked a tourist day in the town as well. The weather wasn't great but we made the most of it and saw some really interesting places.

The non-birding week started by us diverting to see the European Roller near Lackford Lakes, which I said was on-route, which can be argued is the case if you look at a very small map of Europe. The antidote was to indulge Sally in a shopping trip to Bury St Edmunds for the afternoon and so the format for the week was set where we would spend half a day in a place of Sally's choice and the other half in an agreed nature reserve or walk.

Other than the Roller there was nothing of note in the area which ensured I wasn't angling to chase after a particular bird and it was all fairly relaxed so I managed to see the following notable birds

Minsmere (after Snape Maltings) - Bittern, Marsh Harrier, Roseate Tern, Spotted Redshank, Bearded Tit

Wicken Fen - Marsh Harrier, Grasshopper Warbler

Paxton Gravel Pits - Little Ringed Plover, Common Tern, Cuckoo

Grafham Water - Green Sandpiper,

Audley End - Spotted Flycatcher

and around the barn we were staying - Yellowhammer, Corn Bunting, Swallows, Tawny Owl

We had a great time, although picked up a nasty non-covid bug on our return which laid me low for 10 days - probably because my immune system has had nothing to do for the last 18 months.