September - autumn migrants

The change from August to September may only take a second as the clock's hand sweeps past midnight but the seasonal change is a lot more tangible. Buses become crowded in the morning as the kids go back to school, a fleece is often required to ward off the early morning chill, blackberries have gone past their palatable best and the ivy blossom means it even smells like autumn.

For the local patch birder there's more of an urgency to get out there and catch up with the migrants you missed in spring before the chance is gone and the last one has winged its way back to Africa for the winter. Flycatchers: Pied, Spotted and their allied chats: Whinchat and Common Redstart could be in any hedgerow and there are bigger prizes to look for such as Wryneck and Red-backed Shrike or even something rarer.

It was the lure of some of these birds that took us to Wanstead Flats early in the month. This has always been a reliable site for a lot of these birds and they'd even had a Wryneck. I met up with John & Janet at Wanstead Park station on the soon-to-be-renamed Goblin Line at 9am and we walked the five minute journey to the southern tip. It didn't take long to find a Whinchat, by the Skylark enclosure then we were treated to several more of them as we explored further.

Whinchat, Wanstead Flats

Another Whinchat at Wanstead Flats

We diverted to Alex Lake for a look around then headed back to Long Wood where the Wryneck had been spending its time. As a tit flock passed through John suddenly announced he'd got the Wryneck. It was facing away showing little more than a cryptically-coloured grey-brown tail. But it was perched motionless along an oak branch. Something didn't add up and as we moved to the side for a lateral view it immediately became apparent why - it was a Nightjar!

We knew there were still a few Wanstead birders on site but didn't have their numbers so we put out a message with a map location and hoped for the best. Within minutes the first group arrived and it was nice to get them all onto the bird as watching a day-roosting Nightjar in London is a rare event. In fact the only other one I'd seen during the day was on its wintering grounds in Mozambique.

Nightjar, Wanstead Flats

 After I left to get some lunch one of the vermin Grey Squirrels decided that the Nightjar's branch was its highway and flushed the bird deep into the wood where it wasn't seen again that day. And I missed at least one flycatcher as well. It didn't really matter as the views of the Nightjar were more than adequate compensation.

I visited Rainham Marshes several times during the first half of September. The female Merlin was still hanging around the tip but generally being quite elusive, however I did run into it twice more. Once it was perched out in the Enclosed Bay and on another day it flew past the tip and was hunting over Aveley Bay.

Merlin, Rainham Marshes

I also made several visits to Beam Parklands and Dagenham Chase. The latter site was more productive with an uncooperative Spotted Crake showing briefly for three of us who were there at the time. On another visit I heard a Nuthatch which is just as rare here as the crake. 

It's not been a great month for vismig - identifying birds flying over on passage. The best has been Tree Pipit as I recorded several over Rainham and one over The Chase unlike last autumn when I didn't get any.

It was a short month for me as I went off to Indonesia and didn't return until October. I'll post a few blogs on that at a later date.

Photographs

In addition to the ones posted above, I still managed a few new ones and the odd upgrade.

Water Rail, Dagenham Chase

Lapwing, Rainham Marshes (upgrade)

Ruff, Rainham Marshes

Sparrowhawk, Rainham Marshes (upgrade)

These took me up to 133 species photographed in London this year and I still haven't managed to get a Chaffinch yet. I need to find some at feeders.