First Whinchat for the autumn

No awards for this Whinchat shot!

I strolled from my home to The Scrubs again this morning as the motor is currently on the operating table at BMW Mini. It took 40 minutes. Whilst walking I suddenly realised that I could have caught a tube and been there in a fraction of the time. I guess the walk did me some good, besides I took the train home after.

The sun was shining and there was a bit more movement in the trees with Willow Warblers, Chiffchaff, Whitethroats and Blackcaps heading the cast. Saw a Hobby hunting distantly and found my first Whinchat for the autumn on a thistle amongst a bunch of Goldfinches.

Back at home responded to a multitude of emails and finished my belated Scrubs Report for June/July. I'm going to be off to Istanbul at the end of September hopefully to witness the fabled migrations that they get. It will be another addition to my city visits in Bird Watching Magazine. September's going to be a good month what with Lisbon and Istanbul.

Tomorrow night I will be off to Thetford Forest to film Nightjars with the BTO for Birdguides. It will be the sequel to my failed attempt at the end of last summer.

Let's hope that I'm successful.

Everybody needs the sunshine

My day started with my usual trip to Wormwood Scrubs in the hope of finding the next whatever. There was no chance of that happening this morning. The place was deadly quiet under an equally dead looking sky.

I spent the rest of the day either knocking out some tunes on on my twin decks, doing a massive spring clean or hiding being the screen of my recently rehabilitated laptop.

End of story!

Crossed a lot of rivers, seen a lot of land....

'Life is what happens whilst you're busy making plans' is what John Lennon once famously said - or should I say sang. My plans were scuppered when my flamin' laptop had to be rushed into Apple A&E due to its inability to take electricity.

Whilst it was a way I went to Hull and back as my latest outing for Bird Watching Magazine. My mission was to eek out the urban birdlife in this industrial East Yorkshire city. I was quite surprised to find that there were quite a few sites with the majority being sited just outside of the city.

TUB & the lovely lady at the Wild Bird snack van, North Cave Wetlands, East Yorkshire

I was shown around town and the surrounding countryside by Les Johnson of the Hull RSPB Group which culminated in a tasty sausage butty and a cup of peppermint tea in the spitting rain at North Cave Wetlands. The following day I treated myself to a trip to that famous birding mecca, Spurn which was some 30 miles from Hull. I hired a hairdryer (a basic tiny car) for the purpose.

As typical for this English summer that we're experiencing, it was a blazing hot day, a complete contrast to the day before. I met warden, Andy Gibson and had a great chat. He told me about some other interesting sites within Hull itself, plus some Spurn birding folklore.

A controlled Garden Warbler at Spurn

The lighthouse at Spurn Head

Since I last wrote anything in this blog I have become a patron of Spitalfields City Farm. I nipped over there today after football to be shown around. I also learnt that my proposed trip to Istanbul in late September to observe the migration through this historic city had been approved by the Turkish tourist board.

Finally, next weekend is Bird Fair - the Glastonbury for British Birders. I will be there all weekend as on Friday I will be participating in 'Call My Ruff' and on the Saturday I will be delivering my talk on Wormwood Scrubs in the morning and amongst other things, I will be on the RSPB stand in the afternoon to take some kids pond dipping.

So much to do and so little time.

Plus I have been watching The Scrubs practically every morning with Hobby, Garden and Sedge Warblers seen on an almost daily basis.

Summer

After last night's heavy downpour, I was really hoping for a nice fall of migrants with a couple of cool scarcities like a Common Redstart or Pied Flycatcher. Three Willow Warblers were all I could muster.

It was a humid though quite dismal day until late afternoon when the sun decided to come out.

Come on. Let's squeeze a summer out.

Cuckoo!

The Scrubs this morning

This morning's light drizzle felt good. I had a good feeling - surely I'd find a nice migrant or two. Common Whitethroats were much in evidence at 6.30am this morning whilst I strolled through my realm with at least 25 frequenting the embankment and grassland area. I also found another Sedge Warbler, perhaps the 4th in as many visits. A hobby flashed along the embankment and tried to unsuccessfully ambush a mixed flock of Goldfinches and Starlings.

The cloud cover broke and by this point I was walking across The Scrubs' football pitches. As I looked up I noticed an adult Cuckoo flying fairly high heading south. It suddenly plummeted and dived into the trees of Martin Bell's Wood.

This bird constituted the second ever autumn Cuckoo and the first ever autumn adult. I was well happy, especially given that none were recorded during the spring. Mind you, there was no one on The Scrubs to see anything at the time anyway!

Today, I got signed up to give a talk to the Potters Bar RSPB Group in February next year. I'm going to do my "A Year In Wormwood Scrubs' talk that I will be premiering at Bird Fair. Speaking of which, I was invited onto the 'Call My Ruff' team that will be in action on the Friday. My fellow contestants will include my mates, The Dilge and Nick 'Bug Boy' Baker.

Here's to embarrassing myself!

Tomorrow's another day

I just seem to be getting busier and busier these days. I'm spending hours in front of a computer screen knocking out word after word. Some days I almost miss the days when I didn't write a thing and spent more time dreaming.

Speaking of dreaming, I didn't make The Scrubs this morning but that was due to work pressures rather than laziness. I'm actually programmed to wake up at 5.30am every morning which is great timing for the impending migration season.

Roll on the dawn.

The Smell

When will my first Northern Wheatear show up?

The autumnal scent is now wafting into the air. After visiting The Scrubs on Friday morning and this morning I noticed that there was a discernible change in the avian atmosphere. Over the two mornings I counted at least 22 Common Whitethroat many of which feeding large fledglings as were the Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs. This morning was good with a returning foraging Willow Warbler, a brief glimpse of a Garden Warbler and five Sand Martin headed north east over the embankment - a scarce bird here.

I'm glad that I have refound my mojo when it comes to The Scrubs and I intend to go every morning weather and commitment permitting.