When the East Wind Blows

An early morning Stint (Mmm....Stint, that would be nice) of vis. Migging from the garden produced the usual cacophony of noise and two Meadow Pipits, 1 North and another South over the course of 40 minutes. On the reservoirs it was little better with another 5-10 Meadow Pipits over during the morning.

The only Southern vagrant on the East Warwick was Lol back from his Mediterranean jaunt. On the West Warwick, after braving the Wasps under the bridge sign, we saw a Whinchat, at first feeding on the ground but it then bush hopped along the bank before flying off strongly towards Hackney. A couple of Jackdaws went North and, on the East Warwick, 2 Snipe did a circuit of the reservoir before flying off. The only other Birds of note were a few wheeling Ring-necked Parakeets and, also wheeling but higher, a sizeable flock of House Martins. The Leaside Alders held none of the hoped for Siskins, which have been recorded from a number of London sites of late.

We looked in vain for the Mandarin around No.2. It could still be around, just snoozing on one of the islands but it may well have departed. A Hobby over the Lockwood was the best on offer there despite the promise of Raptory goodness with the Easterly wind. Kevin had seen a Redshank, and nothing else all morning, up on the Lockwood, it seemed to be a good cue to move on, in fact off. On the way out we had another Whinchat by the Ferry Boat Inn.

PW