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.