Weekend highlights

Saturday was fairly quiet, one group of around 40 Redwing over, then 20 more, 4 Swallow SE, 6 Skylark over the landfill couldn't decide which way they were going.

Sunday was the bird walk, which again started with 30-40 Redwing, plus smaller groups, a few Meadow Pipit, 4 Mistle Thrush went North West of the LFGP, a good handful of Chiffchaff, but nothing else until we caught up with Brian at LFGP, where a female Pintail was in the SW corner and a distant Stonechat provided month ticks.

A Grey Wagtail at the weir West of Sandford did show well enough for three okay shots, but it kept on the move and never posed perfectly, at least for an iPhone shot

Out late today and a few brown jobs over, 3-5 Meadow Pipit, a few Chaffinch, plenty of Buzzard and Red Kite up in the bright, but cool NE breeze. A Little Egret went North, 1-2 Chiffchaff in the car park field.

The post script for today is the 4 White-fronted Geese at Otmoor, for no other reason than they are hanging out with Greylags and we've had a good number by our standards, so my message is to check them all for the next 2-3 months.

Elusive waders

Another very dull grey start at Lea Farm GP today, I kept saying to myself "there is a wader out here somewhere, I'll find it if it ever gets light!"

With just a pair of Grey Wagtail being the highlight, I prepared to leave, but doing one last sweep with the bins and I picked up a small wader landing with about 7 Lapwing at the right hand end of the NE shingle bank.

It looked rather small, but I had it down as Dunlin quickly, but as it kept flicking it's primaries I wondered if it had a white rump. After nearly 20 minutes it finally flitted to the left about 5 feet showing a classic Dunlin rump.

I scanned around several times and kept losing the bird against the stones. when I came back later the same problem kept me from re-finding it for nearly 10 minutes. The record shots are terrible, due to distance and light.

My late morning visit ended with about an hour around the car park, 1-2 Chiffchaff, added to the 2 along the Loddon, crests calling in many places, 4-5 Redwing over, 2 Meadow Pipit over, 3 on the landfill, 6-7 Chaffinch in 2 groups North, but very little else.

For the record, Dunlin is very uncommon in October, with no records prior to 2012, but since then 4 out of 5 years and 3 consecutive years now;

7th 2016 - LFGP til 12:25, but no sign by 12:32
5th 2015 - LFGP heard only
12th 2014 - BSL flying but never landed
24th 2012 - LFGP heard only

So back to the history of October Jack Snipe;

23rd & 24th 2007 - Tern scrape (GSE, JO'B et al)
9th to 15th 2002 - Tern scrape (TGJ et al)
2/11th & 1/31st 1997 - Tern scrape (observer unknown)
19th 1996 - Tern scrape (observer unknown)
22nd 1983 - Mungell's Pond (A Carmichael)

Jack is back

Jim Reid WhatsApp'd the group to say possible Jack Snipe, then confirmed it moments later, but it would be 45 minutes before I could get there.

"No panic" I told Richard "I saw the May bird". But I love Jack Snipe and always try to see any that turn up at DP. I'll do a review of autumn records tomorrow, but may be repeating myself.

Anyway it was partially on show, but took about 50 shots to get one that even looked like a Jack Snipe,

And while we were waiting I checked the SW corner, to find not 1, nor 2, not even 3, but 6 Common Gull on show, 5 adults and a 1st winter....like bloomin buses.

Here we go again

On my return to the car park field John joined me and we picked up the Peregrine again, but my record shots with my bridge camera didn't amount to much.

And after nearly 2 hours of watching the sky over the landfill, it was evident that a bit of passage was underway, with 7 House Martin, 1 Swallow, a few Meadow Pipit, one flock of finch sp, probably Linnet, 3-4 Song Thrush and the odd Redwing,

Trevor arrived and the others left, at that point I picked up a raptor coming in from the North, a Buzzard sized bird, gliding on slightly bowed wings. In the dull'ish light it appeared all dark and we kept thinking Buzzard, until it came side over the lake about 600 metres away and at about 600 feet up. Side on we could see it  had one primary in it's right wing missing and had a little more tail than a Buzzard, probably too much for Buzzard.

Like the raptor on the 24th it gave more or less nothing away in sustained views of about 45 seconds and a further 10+ seconds when we quickly moved to the car park field itself, by which time it was fully side on and soaring for a few seconds.

Again we kept saying this is one strange raptor and if that is a Buzzard, then why can't we see features that confirm it to be one?

It began to power out of it's last circle and went way fast SE, the whole time not looking very Buzzard like, with a narrow and longer tail than Buzzard.

Another milestone

It was pretty much dead quiet yesterday and having missed the last 2 morning early starts, it was nice to be out again this morning. At the layby at 06:32, it was still rather dark and I began thinking "I might even hear that year tick yet" and just 7 minutes later there it was 'hoo-hooting' away....Tawny Owl, my 133rd for 2016 and equal fourth highest year total.

At Lea Farm, lots of geese, 68 Greylag, 44 Egyptian, but the only waders were Lapwing....on that note I was scanning Lapwing yesterday and something small shot by in my scope which I thought was a wader and I may have heard a Dunlin, but it was blowing a gale and I couldn't find any sign at all....it could have been a Snipe I guess.

Nothing else happening at Lea Farm, but then a Peregrine came over from DP at 07:07, I pointed my bridge camera at it and got nothing at all, it was still too dark and grey.

Now I'm off to look for something exciting, surely those strong Easterlies have brought a nice bird in? Wouldn't a Barred or another Yellow-Browed Warbler be nice!

Autumn is here

I skipped my early walk and went out around 09:30, picking up 5 Redwing heading North on arrival, a Siskin moments after. As I arrived at the landfill watching spot, I heard a Linnet over, then 5 Meadow Pipit passed SE.

A few minutes later and I was watching a Hobby over the South end of LFGP, it drifted toward Lodge Wood, then circled back a few moments after, it then went into a long dive down and I lost it over Lavell's.

Another 45 minutes at 13:45 and I picked up 2 Raven circling in from the West, they drifted SE and dropped lower and lower, til I lost them behind the trees.

These shots actually look a bit like Raven this time, certainly the second one, taken without my adapter, which is tough going

Now you see me...

A very quiet start at LFGP, but I enjoyed taking shots of Green Woodpecker down in front of the hide

Then completing my walk almost without event, I checked the car park field and went thru the usual "is that a bird, or a weed" conversation with myself. I cranked up the zoom on my scope and could see it was definitely a chat, on the nettle to the left of the vent behind and left of the burner.

The light wasn't bad, flat and grey in fact so I managed to quickly ascertain it was my 2nd ever October Whinchat, fumbling for the iPhone digi adapter, I snapped 4 shots, but on inspection found I had captured nothing.

Panning left I picked up a bird, said "oh it's there on a vent now" and snapped away again, here are the pics, I feel despite the poor, grainy shots, it shows a Wheatear not a Whinchat, but I couldn't find that a minute later either.

Since this post, Marek has found 2 Whinchat but no Wheatear and he also found 2 Red-legged Partridge again, Which if you separate the 2008 individual, which was seen 9th and heard about until the 15th, there has not been multiple dates in a single year since 1985!

A Hobby was also seen today and it is not surprising given how warm it has been until recently, on average we get October records 2 out of 3 years.

The latest dates are 19th 2005, 13th 1984, 10th 1997, 8th 1992 & 2015.

A quick view of September which finished on 102, 2nd place two behind 2012. This did not include my raptor on the 24th and while I wanted a gull on the 30th to be Great Black-backed Gull, I am sure it was a 'fuscus' Lesser, which I cannot remember seeing at DP before anyway.