Sunday 3 April 2011

The migrants are coming!

Female Common Stonechat (Andy Cook)
I didn't get to The Scrubs this morning as I was over in Sunny Walthamstow, East London. A stroll through Wanstead Flats in the vain hope of rediscovering the two Ring Ouzels discovered yesterday by the Wanstead Birder drew a blank. It was however, one of those mornings and indeed afternoons when you instinctively felt that it would be good for raptors.

Evidently that was the case with London-wide reports of a juvenile Marsh Harrier over Brent Reservoir and generally, Common Buzzards, Red Kites and a supporting cast of Sparrowhawks and Kestrels. I scored a kettling Common Buzzard and maybe three ultra high Sparrowhawks.

Meanwhile, over at basecamp a male Common Redstart graced the embankment and a female Stonechat was also found. The latter species has gone from being a regular migrant to scarce visitor.

This is getting exciting!

2 comments:

Alan Pavey said...

Hi Dave, it does feel like it's starting to get exciting, we had a Hoopoe yesterday on our patch in Kent, unfortunately I missed, always great to find Redstarts!

theconstantwalker said...

A lovely start to spring in Cheshire. Sand Martins in great numbers.