Autumn heats up a little at The Scrubs

Last Sunday morning I led a London Natural History Society walk around the patch.

We did well. 

A Red Kite decided to float low overhead - our 4th or 5th (can't remember right now). Just before then and before I met the group a flock of six Rook headed in from the west to land on the mown grass in front of the prison. 

They were the first of this normally rural corvid to be seen at The Scrubs this year and certainly our biggest ever flock. The previous largest count was a pair that flew over during the spring a few years ago.

 Red Kite

 Kestrel being mobbed by a Carrion Crow

 Meadow Pipit

 Another of the many Meadow Pipits

 A Reed Warbler - another 1st for the year

Two days later on another stupendous morning (weather-wise) I locked onto a female Stonechat originally found by Paul Thomas, a fellow Scrubber. It was great to capture it sitting next to a Whinchat, its close relative.

 A Stonechat and Whinchat pair

Sunrise at The Scrubs