Another day had
arrived and I was a late arrival at the corner (0600hrs) as Frank had been on a
pre daylight Owl watch and had been reasonably successful. Both of us were
settling down for a long morning with high cloud and a W to NW breeze. I am not
sure where the predicted rain had disappeared to but it was not going to hit
the Farm that was for sure.
Both of us have a season
ticket for Sutton Utd and as we were chewing over the bun fight for points at
the foot of the National League I noticed a bird being mobbed over the lake.
The bins were immediately put into action and I exclaimed “Short Eared Owl”.
Frank got on it as I fixed the camera on it. The Owl continued south suddenly disappearing
out of sight. I was not expecting that!!
We remained on point
until the cloud began to break up and then decided with all the Redstart arriving
it was time to take a walk around the North end of the Farm in case a Redstart
had dropped in. As with all walks with Frank we covered a greater area than
first anticipated but we were both flexible and wanted to cover all habitats
that might hold such a species.
A couple of hours
later we had seen many Song Thrush a couple of Willow Warbler, Whitethroat were
also in numbers and Blackcap. No Redstart which does surprise me as there is
plenty of suitable habitat for them. Especially as Black Redstart breed in
Croydon and used to breed on the Farm in the days of the cooling towers.
The wind turns very
favourably in the next couple of days but some rain would definitely help push
migrants down. Time for a rain dance!
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