August has not been the start to the autumn that I would have wanted on Soil Hill, with bad weather really hampering birding efforts, and low migrant totals making it difficult to stay motivated. Fortunately this morning there was a break in the site's fortunes, with a patch tick for me number 125; Reed Warbler!
It caught me completely off guard when the bird perched up in the open in a thicket for a few seconds, before dropping down and calling twice. Stunned at this, I grabbed my camera and began stalking the bird to ensure that it did not leave the bush before I had managed a record shot. It remained frustratingly elusive but did show a couple more times, but again too fast for the camera.
It then flew out of the bush, to my horror, but fortunately it did not go far and I was able to follow it. Here I got a small bunch of blurred record shots to remember this occasion. Since I had now been following the bird for some time, I decided to leave it and get on with some other birding.
Other migrants were again thin on the ground, with no Willow Warblers present at all today. Still there were four Tree Pipits that flew south/dropped in, showing very nicely on the machinery at the bottom of the slope. Three Snipe flew southwest and a distant Peregrine flew south. All good stuff that hopefully indicates better birding days are ahead!
Soil Hill: Canada Goose, Common Pheasant, Feral Pigeon, Stock Dove, Common Wood Pigeon, Common Moorhen, Common Snipe, Black-headed Gull, European Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Eurasian Sparrowhawk, Little Owl, Common Kestrel, Peregrine Falcon, Eurasian Magpie, Western Jackdaw, Rook, Carrion Crow, Coal Tit, Eurasian Blue Tit, Eurasian Skylark, Common Reed Warbler, Barn Swallow, Common Whitethroat, Eurasian Wren, Common Starling, Common Blackbird, European Robin, Dunnock, House Sparrow, Meadow Pipit, Tree Pipit, Eurasian Chaffinch, Eurasian Bullfinch, European Greenfinch, Common Linnet, European Goldfinch, Common Reed Bunting,
