A very autumnal morning with westerly winds an rain initially becoming brighter though still quite warm at 16 degrees.
From 0700 covered the dam and walked from Hill Farm to Savages Spinney.
Being a transitional month September can produce avian variety particularly during spells of mild weather as summer visitors linger and mix with transient migrants and early incoming wintering birds, Grafham Water today was a fairly typical example of this albeit on a fairly modest scale.
14 Little Egrets; 3 Wigeon flew in from the north-east; an adult and 2 juvenile Hobbies lingered over Savages Spinney the juveniles still begging for food from the adult; 4 Common Buzzards; 1 Dunlin and 3 Ringed Plovers on the dam; 1 Sanderling on the dam then flew off south-west; 4 Yellow-legged Gulls; 2 Grey wagtails and 6 Yellow Wagtails on the dam with 27 of the latter over high south-east; 1 Rock Pipit on the dam until flushed by an angler then flew off high west; Meadow Pipits were typically on the move with c.30 south-west, 8 south-east and 60 south; c.80 Swallows with several small groups arriving from the north-east swelling the number to c.140; c. 200 House Martins; a sprinkling of Whitethroats, Chiffchaffs and a few Blackcaps.
A male White Admiral along the Oaks at the eastern end of Savages Spinney was quite late in the year.
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