The zombie walks

Garden Warbler (Russell F Spencer)

Stupidly, I woke at 5am this morning after 3 hours sleep having convinced myself that I needed to check my patch out for migrants.

I arrived in a stupor and remained fairly glazed over as I walked the realm with fellow Scrubber, Roy Nuttall. It was a bad move. I should have been tucked up in bed recovering from my long distance lorry driving feat at the weekend.

I recorded a Stock Dove, c60 Swifts wheeling overhead and in the grassland around 100 juvenile Starlings, a young Reed Bunting, c60 Goldfinches and about 20 Linnets in their midst. Someone reported a Garden Warbler yesterday, which would have been our earliest returning bird on record. But on re-reading his description of the pair of birds he saw the repetitive 'tweets' they were uttering certainly sounded wrong for this species. Perhaps they were Willow Warblers or Chiffchaffs.