19th August: Two Redstarts

Inspired by James Evry's great sightings recently I thought that I'd better get back out on the Patch to try and find something of my own. Against all odds I did actually manage to come across a couple of REDSTARTS in Burgess Field, in the field in the south east corner of the nature reserve. As is typical for late afternoon birding they were very skulking but I managed to see them well enough in the end to age them as an adult male and a first winter male. This is a hard species to get on the Meadow so I was very pleased to have seen them. Apart from that there were noticeably good numbers of young birds about with juvenile Goldfinches, Whitethroat, Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff all seen. One mixed feeding flock had well over twenty birds with a variety of Tits and Warblers all tagging along together. The hedgerows are heaving with berries in what must have been a very good summer for them so there's plenty about for the autumn and winter birds.

To round things off as I walked back a lovely HOBBY shot over the Meadow - a nice end to a pleasant afternoon's visit.

The Marbled Whites seem to have gone now in Burgess Field but I
thought that I'd share this one from a few weeks back