A Black Kite next?

Black Kite (Neil Kumar)

Great game of footie this morning. We came back from a certain crushing defeat - 4-1 down after 15 minutes - to win 7-4 in an almost flamboyant manner. My concentration was only diverted by a bunch of noisy Magpies that were mobbing an unseen assailant that I couldn't see from my goal line!

After breakfast I forewent my usual siesta and drove to The Scrubs instead. It was a hazy, warm sunny afternoon ripe for raptor activity and after yesterday's Goshawk I was feeling lucky. There's been a lot of movement across London today and fellow Scrubber Roy Nuttall had noted over 350 House Martins moving over the grassland. It was an amazingly high count for us as we are used to seeing no more than 10 birds per year across two migration periods!

When I arrived at The Scrubs, I sat myself down in the grassland and waited. I soon picked up the 5 Whinchats that have been roaming the grassland for the past few days. After about an hour of nothing flying over I decided to leave. I looked up an there on the thermals were 3 Common Buzzards. Our 3rd record and our first multiple sighting. As I celebrated, I noticed a further 2 birds even higher up! Apparently, 19 birds passed over Richmond Park to the south and at least 11 passed over Regents Park to the east today.

I nearly forgot to tell you that I have another short documentary currently showing on www.birdguides.com about the Nightjars in Thetford Forest that I went to try and capture. The link is http://www.birdguides.com/webzine/article.asp?a=1743 let me know what you think.