Well there's been plenty of galavanting away over the past months but I have been plodding away steadily at enjoying the homelands too. The siege of Cranes on the Washes peaked at well over 40 birds at Welney where Simon Stirrup took these lovely flight shots, they ranged up and down the Washes before moving North to the Nene.
In August, regular moth trapping in the garden confirmed the continued presence of White-spotted Pinion, national rarey and Elm specialist of the Fens and during one of many potters around Wicken Fen a Pied Flycatcher seemingly dropped out of the sky, landed atop the roof tiles of Dragonfly cottage, flicked it's tail and wings and continued southward. Hirundines flocked in the late summer sun, swirling around the willows like embers from a fire.
As autumn kicked in Redwings started with a nocturnal trickle from late September and poured in through mid October. Following an exhausting Ofsted inspection at work I opted for a lie in on Sat 5th Oct and didn't surface until after midday, I had seen the winds turn to the east but certainly wasn't expecting to hear the emphatic calls of a Yellow-browed Warbler coming from the garden. I grabbed the kitchen bins and caught the tail end of a tit flock moving through the oak and hawthorn. I put a bluetooth speaker on and played a Yellow-brow call on a loop to try and hold the flock and attract the bird, to no avail. Later in the afternoon I heard the sprite again near ghe village park but couldn't get eyes on the rascal. Nonetheless a fantastic bird to add to the garden list.
Next morning, the breeze still to the east but with rain falling steadily, I headed out to walk the length of Holkham Pines and out onto Burnham Overy Dunes. There were thrushes dropping out of the flocks overhead and within 5 minutes the first Yellow-brow showed itself. A couple of Ring Ouzel passed over loudly, due to the inclement weather I had the place to myself, aside from a sizeable fall of Yellow-brows and the arrival of all manner of passerines from the continent.
By the end of my 4 hr walk I had seen Sprites over 30 times, including two flocks of five birds, a conservative estimate of 12 individual birds for the morning, a fantastic experience. In addition 7 Cattle Egret and 3 GW Egret glowed like bleached spots against the murky green wash of tbe grazing meadows and 6 or more Ring Ouzels had made their presence known.
Completely sodden I headed home early afternoon and was thankful nothing rarer turned up to make me regret my decision to leave or to draw me back out into the rain.
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