Having spent Monday to Friday clearing the garage, taking a boot full of stuff down to the tip, digging bits of the garden every day, incorporating 400 litres of (wet and heavy) composted bark, several bags of sand and gravel then replanting it was good to have a rest. So I went for a 5 mile walk on Saturday.
Being mid September I tend to think its a good time to find a migrant Redstart locally as they tend to pass through now. Some places seem to be regular spots for them and the paddocks on the Beane at Aston End seem to be one of them. I've had several over the years, and I suspect that they occur every year, but being unable to visit daily I cannot prove that.
As it turned out it was a very dull day from a birding point of view with very little activity. The only definite migrant was a single Swallow heading south near the ford. Three flyover Skylarks here were presumably local birds, and the same could be said of the three Chiffchaffs I heard. Jays were frequently seen, with around ten birds encountered. Generally though, the fields and hedges were quiet, and despite the rather warm conditions insects were in short supply. The ploughed fields didn't seem to attract anything either.
I did get a few butterflies though. In Aston End itself, my only local Painted Lady of the year flew past. One patch of brambles in a sheltered sunny spot had a couple of Commas and a Speckled Wood (with a few of the latter seen elsewhere).
I was a bit undecided about Sunday. I did consider the Osprey at Panshanger, but it often only showed in the afternoons, so I went to Rye Meads. With water levels dropping I had hoped that a wader or two might be present. Well there were two Green Sandpipers. Maintenance work on some of the scrapes had presumably let to some disturbance.
It was a bit breezy and I wasn't expecting to see a great deal, but a few Common Darters and Migrant Hawkers were flying.
Lots of duck were on the north lagoon, including a few Wigeon, but the recent Pintail eluded me. The nearest bird did pose though.
Bumped into Maureen again on the way back. I was talking about the difficulty of trying to find Willow Emeralds in the conditions when one decided to fly out of the sallow beside us and then a second individual appeared. I had pretty much given up on trying to see any this year. Very tricky to photograph, as the 100-400mm lens struggled to focus but I nailed it in the end. The 60mm macro was a lot easier but the short working distance caused me to flush it (though that was the only reason we saw the second individual).
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