June 11-20th: autumn begins

I spent nearly all of this period birding locally at Brent Reservoir. The middle third of June is usually the quietest period of the year bird wise even though I usually record at least 50 species on each visit. It’s just that it’s usually the same 50 species. Although, during this period I did see a Red Kite, presumably an immature bird on its wanders. At least there’s always plenty of insects to look at and amongst the myriad of little critters I discovered, I even managed a few photos of some moths and butterflies.

Clouded Border

Garden Carpet

Small Magpie

Treble Brown Spot

Painted Lady

Black-headed Gulls have started to drift back, just in single figures so far but they did bring in one of this year’s youngsters with them. Lapwings have also become present daily with up to four being seen and I found a Common Sandpiper on the 16th. Any of these could be described as autumn migrants but to me, autumn starts with Green Sandpiper and I saw my first one on Monday 20th.

After a couple of weeks of high summer which included the hottest day of the year so far, it’s good to know that autumn has started. Compared to muggles (non-birders), us birders do have very different seasons, and autumn is by far the longest often stretching into December some years although I usually mark it as over at the end of November.

Actually the first Green Sand was seen at Brent two days earlier but I didn’t see that one as I was elsewhere on the reservoir chatting to friends ahead of a memorial service for Andrew Verrall. There was a good turnout with many of the Brent regulars present and his younger sister, the last survivor of five siblings. The Friends of the Welsh Harp got Barnet Council to put in a bench for AGV (as we often referred to him) and we recanted tales about our late friend.

all three photos by P. Hagglund

Apart from Brent I did manage one away visit. I’d noticed a green space on the map which looked interesting and when I checked eBird there were no sightings listed. This encouraged me to make a visit as it’s not often you get to be the first person to record birds at a site, particularly in London. So, midweek I walked through Brent Res to the Edgware Road and got the 32 bus to Edgware station. There’s two buses from there that go all the way and I hopped on the 292 as it was first to arrive. We headed up the A1 towards Borehamwood and I was the only alightee (usually it’s TfL who make up words like this so I thought I’d get in first!) at Scratchwood Open Space.

If the name sounds familiar it’s because the nearby service station on the M1 was named after it but it’s since been renamed. The site is a nice piece of Middlesex woodland, albeit secondary growth, bordered by the A1 and M1 with farmland along the top edge. There’s a loop path through it but I went off-piste a few times, discovering the start of the Elstree rail tunnel. I found a good selection of woodland birds with several Nuthatches, Treecreepers and Coal Tits and a lot of Great Spotted Woodpeckers. At the end of the loop a Buzzard drifted over. It was a pleasant walk and good to go somewhere different.

Scratchwood

Elstree tunnel under Scratchwood

Above the tunnel looking south

The only problem I now had was how to reach the bus stop which was the other side of six lanes of traffic! I know I didn’t pass any crossings on the bus up so I figured I’d walk up a bit further as there was a roundabout marked on the map. Luckily it had a pedestrian crossing and it was only a short walk to the bus stop. I took a slightly different route home, using three buses which took me right to my local bus stop and in time to watch the conclusion of the Test Match.

June 1-10th: summer slowdown

I had a couple of targets in mind when I headed down to Crossness on June 1st, one of which was guaranteed. It can be fairly slow birding in summer but after a frantic spring it did give me the chance to go a few sites to try and catch up with birds that had so far eluded me this year. Crossness is a pleasant place to wander around for a few hours (unless the wind is blowing directly through the sewage treatment works).

I started at the paddocks and headed towards the riverwall. Most passerines were going round with their new family but there was the odd pair of birds that were unaccompanied that had probably failed the first time around. One such pair was a couple of Linnets that perched just ahead of me, the male resplendent with its raspberry flush. Crows and Jackdaws stalked the grassy meadows looking for food.

Jackdaw

Linnet

Approaching the riverwall I looked back and was delighted to see a Barn Owl looking out of its box, a much hoped for year tick. There wasn’t a lot on the river apart from Shelduck, tonnes of Gadwall and a couple of Oystercatcher so I headed back down the track along the protected area where a few Reed Buntings were singing. I always describe their so-called song as counting ‘One, Two, Three and a Half’ before it starts again and never manages to get to Four.

Barn Owl

Reed Bunting

At the road I crossed over to access the Southern Marsh and a range of different habitats. A calling Cuckoo was a site tick for me, otherwise it was a fairly quiet walk to Abbey Wood station where my guaranteed ‘tick’ awaited, a ride on the Elizabeth Line which opened last week. Aside from the shiny new trains, the journey was much quicker and I alighted at Farringdon about 20 minutes later to pick up the Met Line home.

The following day I again went to the Thames marshes, this time the other side of the river at Rainham. I wasn’t expecting to see anything new but it’s that odd time of year when unexpected birds can just drop in. Today wasn’t one of those days but it’s worth the effort to try. There were a couple of Cuckoos calling on Rainham West and a late Sanderling in the bay.

Cuckoo

Whilst out on the reserve a message alerted me to a Red Kite heading my way which I managed to locate, my first here this year, otherwise it was full of breeding waders.

Wishing to spend the second bank holiday out of London, I travelled down to Sandwich with my friends for a day out in Kent. I hadn’t done this train journey for many years and this time we were heading to a new site. I don’t do a lot of long-distance twitching nowadays but the lure of an Eleanora’s Falcon two hours away was too good to miss. It was only a short walk down to the temporary car park where we accessed the footpath to Worth Marshes.

There were a couple of Hobbies hawking ahead so we headed towards them. We knew the falcon had been seen recently and there were plenty of people about, nevertheless it was a bit of a surprise when it flew in close to us and started hunting over the lake. After a couple of minutes it drifted off and we never saw it again so we decided to go and look for the Red-footed Falcon. It was being seen a fair way along the path so we took our time, seeing what else was around on the marshes.

By the time we reached the designated spot there were only a couple of other birders staking out the site so we stopped and had lunch. The clear water in the ditches held plenty of dragonflies like Four-spotted Chaser, Red-eyed Damselfly and two new species for me: Variable Damselfly and Norfolk Hawker. Over the past few years the latter has colonised parts of southeast England, most likely from the near continent rather than from its English base of the Norfolk Broads. A couple of Kestrels were seen and then, our fourth falcon of the day when the Red-foot was seen flying around in the distance. We did see a fifth falcon but it was a Lanner hybrid that one of the local farmworkers showed us that is used as a much more efficient bird scarer than Worzel Gummidge.

Four-spotted Chaser

Variable Damselfly

I spent most of the next week birding locally, mostly at Brent Res but also visiting Fryent CP one day. The latter site is mostly grass meadows and woodland with a few small ponds so it was a real surprise to find a pair of Tufted Duck on Barn Hill pond which was a new species for the site. I also finally saw my first Common Buzzard at Fryent which had been an obvious omission, especially as I had seen a few Red Kites before.

Tufted Duck

Common Buzzard

To finish the first third of the month off I decided to visit Rye Meads RSPB with my friends. They hadn’t been there before and my last two visits were some years ago when I twitched Solitary Sandpiper and Glossy Ibis so it was almost a new site for me as well. Although there’s not a cafe like at Rainham, you can still purchase a hot drink and a tasty flapjack at reception so we polished these off before setting off for a circuit of the reserve.

We first stopped off at the dragonfly pool where I was pleasantly surprised to find a Norfolk Hawker, our second in just over a week. We saw another one around the back of the reserve so maybe they are breeding here.

Norfolk Hawker

The first hide was the Draper Hide from which we saw the most birds. The commonest bird was Gadwall while the scarcest duck were a couple of Red-crested Pochard. Waders included Lapwing, three or four Little Ringed Plovers and a couple of migrant Dunlin – it was impossible to know if they were tardy adults heading north or a pair of failed breeders that were already on their autumn migration southward.

Red-crested Pochard

Little Ringed Plover

We carried on around, popping into various hides to see what was about. It was a good day for raptors with two Buzzards, Red Kite, Sparrowhawk, Hobby and Kestrels all seen. The sunny weather was also good for insects with plenty of butterflies seen, a female Banded Demoiselle and even a Mayfly which landed on my face! We also found a couple of Bee Orchid, my first ones of the year.

Banded Demoiselle

Mayfly

Bee Orchids

Even when birding is quiet in the summer, there's always plenty of other wildlife to be seen so it was a good start to June and I expect there will be more to be seen during the rest of the month.