I made a quick visit this morning to try and spot the winchats. Although I saw none, I bumped into Pete Lambert who had seen 2 early in the morning. He had also seen 2 Yellow wagtails flying over and a hobby. While we were talking he aslo spotted a raptor on top of one of the pylons skirting the Lee Navigation. Although it was against the sun Pete thought it was a young peregrine, as he managed to see the marking when the sun briefly retreated behind a cloud.

He also reports that spotted flycatchers had been seen by another birder in Stonebridge wood during the week.

So things hotting up!

DMC

Not sure if these three gadwall are related to those reported by Pete but it was good to see them on the Lee navigation.

We were two short on our August bird survey (some feeble excuse about getting married!) so Janice and I were on our own on East Marsh. So we felt very privileged when a kingfisher did a fly-by under Green Bridge, stopped, perched on a nearby branch then dived and caught a fish.
We only had our compact cameras so the images are not brilliant. Janice’s photo sets the scene, my blurry cropped photo shows where the kingfisher is in case you can’t see it!
Some passing cyclists were suitably impressed – the orange of the kingfisher’s breast really shone out.

I’ve also added a photo of a fishing heron.

Debbie

P.S. Thanks for emailing the photo, Janice.

Although August is a very quiet birding month yesterday’s survey managed to provide a rare sighting on the marshes of a spotted flycatcher. Good views were had from the park bench on the top path at the far north end of Wild Marsh East. On an otherwise quiet day other highlights included a kingfisher and Kestrel. Family groups of blackcaps, whitethroats and long-tailed tits were also seen.

Full results will be posted later.

DMC