Autumnal indeed

With a forecast of rain looking 'iffy' in the middle of the night, I thought the session this morning could be shortened by incoming inclement weather. The weather, as per was wrong! As I was baking in the sun picking blackberries around the garden I was reminiscing of the summer that has been.

Have all the marsh warblers left now, will we in fact catch a single sedge warbler this autumn? never mind the vandsanger dream; which seems dead for another year. (It's only been 100 years since that one flew into the lighthouse; that I'm sat looking at as I type!) Yes, it all seems a bit final. Wagtails are whipping through and the janglings of autumnal jernspurvs now fill the morning air, robins tick from dense cover and the lesser whitethroats angrily share their thoughts as I wander around stealing their food source. Finches and pipits are beginning to move through now too. The phwipping of løvsanger is slowly being replaced with the harsher phwit of gransanger and sparrowhawks are flashing through the garden left, right and centre. Less of this poetic nonsense; onto today. 

99 birds ringed. 

Spurvehøg  5

Jernspurv 7

Rødhals 5

Nattergal 1

Rødstjert 7

Rørsanger 1

Gulbug 6

Gærdesanger 17

Tornsanger 12

Havesanger 1

Munk 13

Løvsanger 19

Fuglekonge 1

Lille Fluesnapper 1

Broget Fluesnapper 3

Ficedula parva, adult female. Archive photo. © Craig Brookes

The Lille Fluesnapper is the first caught in the autumn season after a short stayer last week which evaded capture. The Fuglekonge (to my knowledge) is also the first for the autumn. 

Other things of note. A hobby flew through the garden early on and a few kestrels too. Gert saw a harrier (not Rørhøg) of some sort whiz through over the sea field, I was inside having a sit down after 6 hours taking rounds non-stop and didn't see it. 

The weather for the weekend looks atrocious in fairness. I'll attempt to do something productive, but staying dry is up there on my list of priorities! 

Have a good weekend, 

Craig