The end of the patch

The former Brackley Sawmills, a large patch of now wasteland on the northern edge of Brackley has produced a brilliant array of wildlife over the past few months or so with a nice range of butterflies, Orchids and more recently birds too.

Looming though was the fact that planning permission had been granted for a brand new estate to be build immanently. On Thursday 21/08 it was game over with metal fences erected and demolition beginning. Sad times knowing a 40 or so strong colony of Marbled White among other things have now been wiped just like that.

  




















Anyways just before the end, back on the relatively sunny evening of Tuesday 19/08, I headed over after work, more with the plan of looking for Clouded Yellow butterflies than any birds, however this soon changed as I found a Wheatear flitting around some piles of concrete rubble almost straight away. In stark contrast to spring, autumn Wheatears are relatively hard to come by in Northants so this was a nice surprise.

The Wheatear flew to the nearby hedgerow bordering the site. In the same section of hedge my attention was drawn to another passerine. It took a while to get a decent view until eventually it gave itself away with that quivering tail, it was a juvenile Redstart. A mini fall in Brackley!
It was pretty elusive but I was still able to get a few half decent photos.

On the way back to the car I also enjoyed a very showy Lesser Whitethroat feeding on the other side of the same hedge.

The next day the Redstart again showed very briefly in cloudy conditions, however not enough for a decent photo. This sadly was my last ever visit to the site, so my search for a new local patch begins!