Back to the blast furnace for the next campaign and have spent a fair bit of time pounding the golf course since returning. Seven visits in the 11 days of September so far is fairly thorough, especially given a few other (birding) balls to juggle but is quite necessary as, much more so than in spring, things tend to drop in for an evening, an hour or, in the case of five Wood Sands yesterday, about 15 seconds. Waders are generally the most obvious movers in September, especially in the first half of the month, but it has actually taken a little while for the smouldering to start. Finally started to fly yesterday with 11 species in an hour (out of 13 all month so far), which isn’t bad for nasty bit of pesticide-ridden grassland a stony-edged pool. I’m still in need of Pacific Goldie and Collared Pratincole, both sparse but regular at this time of year (and, at this rate, this means that Caspian Plover or a Broad-bill is now pushing it a bit) but have (finally) added Ruff and Green Sandpiper. Ringed and sand plovers have also been showing nicely, with the latter represented by lots of demanding juveniles, as the attached will attest. Any takers?
Whiskered Terns in and out for a few
nights have been nice and there was eventually some heron action tonight with three Purples flying around for ages. Passerines have been mostly slack,
but Steppe and Lesser Grey Shrikes nearly side-by-side tonight was pretty classic
and a very handy couple of not-so-Common
Rosefinches have freed up the rest of the month and October for looking for
something much more memorable. Or maybe merely Golden Oriole. Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters are currently daily as usual and Kingfisher was only my 3rd patch record, all of which
have been in September down the years. Plenty of time yet; autumn runs until mid December out here...
OSCAR
Total so far - 172 (98%)
Last addition – Common Rosefinch (8th September)
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