Sunday 4th October

So September has come and gone and sadly there's still been little to report. The lovely Indian Summer weather has been great for wandering about in but it has done little bird bird movement and we're left scratching around for news. The most interesting report was of a possible HONEY BUZZARD seen by Steve Goddard over the Woodstock Road on the 17th. They are tricky birds to ID in flight so sadly it's one that got away. Talking of fly-overs Adrian Gray ("our man in the north" who's sadly moving on the pastures new) has a RAVEN fly over Wolvercote "cronking" loudly. Visitor Anne Redstone reported a few Lapwing back on the Meadow though as yet there have been no Golden Plover. There was a single YELLOW WAGTAIL in amongst the cattle last week and I've seen a Grey Wagtail a few times around the patch. On the rivers the Kingfisher has been seen on and off and a LITTLE EGRET has been fishing on the Thames of late. I've been seeing or at least hearing SISKINS fairly regularly about the Patch now. Apart from that it's been the usual stuff in the usual places.

Little Egret on the river

Given the paucity of bird action I've been spending time down at the Trap Grounds admiring the last of the summer Hawkers and Darters. There have been one or two Migrant and Southern Hawkers around still as well as a few Common Darters though sadly they won't be around for much longer.

Common Darter

Now that the settled weather has gone perhaps we'll get enough rain to re-create the floods and bring in some nice gulls! It's also time to start listening out for Redwings and Fieldfares which should start arriving this month. Finally, there's been a huge number of Yellow-browed Warblers hitting the east coast this autumn. No doubt a few will be trickling down through the county so it's worth listening out for their distinctive call - it would be great to get this fabulous county Mega on the patch two years running!