Passerines on the move!

The last few days have seen a real rise in migrant passerines, coinciding with a period of slightly more unsettled weather.

My birding has once again been largely confined to daily visits to Grimsbury Reservoir in Banbury, around my work commitments. Last week was hard work with nothing too new on the move, however from Saturday onwards, new migrants have arrived thick and fast!

On Saturday (12/09), a brief visit revealed a lovely juvenile Black Tern busily feeding over the reservoir in the stunning evening sunlight. I don't often find my Canon SX50 too limiting, however I did wish on this occasion to have a nice SLR in my hands as the views and light were fabulous!

Chats have been the theme within the last couple of days at Grimsbury with singles of Wheatear & Whinchat in the torrential rain yesterday, while today I was chuffed to find a nice male Redstart flicking around the hawthorns SW corner. Gareth Blockley also discovered a couple more Wheatears today too.

Yesterday saw quite a fall of Chiffchaff, with double figures present. Warblers are about but in pretty low numbers. Willow Warblers are trickling through in ones & twos, but certainly the majority appear to have gone. Blackcaps are about in small numbers, gorging on the abundance of berries available. Spotted Flycatchers are also still to be seen and have been present nearly daily in varying numbers for the past 3 weeks. Today there were two catching insects in the pines at the southern end of the wood at Grimsbury.

Siskins and Swallows have featured heavily too in the last few days. Nationally, Siskins are on the move in unusually big numbers, due to what appears to have been a particularly good breeding season on the continent. A group of three went over yesterday while 8-9 this morning. Swallows have had a real push southwards this evening with at least 50 birds dropping out of the sky this evening, followed later on by a minimum of 110 low, purposefully south too. House Martins have also been through in small numbers, with 3 lingering Sand Martins yesterday.

I'm off to Cornwall for a week at the weekend. With the remnants of Hurricane Henri heading in from the west, I've got my fingers crossed for something juicy!