Chatting together

Needed Stonechat for my SFYL so with an hour to spare Sunday afternoon thought I would try Warden Hill as nearest bit of likely habitat, Seen more Stonechats on this hill over the years than Whinchats, Luck was in as within minutes caught up with a pair of birds; one of each.

Ahhh the joys of autofocus...

Rough ground

Been looking all over for one of these. Proper SFYL Blog quality.

Bank Holiday Bankers

As a member of the full-time employed having limited time available for birding around family activity, Bank Holiday weekend can allow a few extra hours in the field to ensure that two scarcer chats hit the list. Was not around for vast majority of this weekend, but still found the pair needed. Redstart (a few days early) on a sneaky extra half hour walk before work on Tuesday and Whinchat as part of a scout around on Saturday. Now for the hard work to find something really decent on them there hills.

Even blind squirrels eventually find a nut...

... especially if they are searching for between 7-10 hours per day. Deepdale Quarry, Potton, 03-Sept
Curlew	1
Black-headed Gull	2
Lesser Black-backed Gull	1
Stock Dove	2
Woodpigeon	88
Collared Dove	3
Green Woodpecker	6
Great Spotted Woodpecker	3
Magpie	9
Jackdaw	29
Rook	19
Carrion Crow	11
Goldcrest	7
Blue Tit	52
Great Tit	43
Coal Tit	10
Swallow	9
Long-tailed Tit	17
Chiffchaff	3
Blackcap	11
Whitethroat	10
Treecreeper	1
Wren	10
Starling	2
Blackbird	22
Song Thrush	5
Spotted Flycatcher	1
Robin	32
Whinchat	1
Dunnock	18
Chaffinch	35
Bullfinch	3
Greenfinch	12
Linnet	4
Goldfinch	91

Palmer-chats

I found a Whinchat accompanied by a Stonechat c5.30pm y'day at Woburn Road Wetlands - I'd already got Stonechat as a sfyt at this site back in spring of course but Whinchat was a welcome addition.

Its been a long time finding something - June to September busy with family and house improvement reasons have seen me hardly get in more than a couple of hours local birding/butterfling/dragonflying this summer but now that all those nasty tiny singing birds have gone I can get down to finding a nice fat duck or gull for my list!! I've not knowingly self-found a Gypo or a Mandarin this year - yet!

And adding in the Wiles Wood Short-eared Owl (I never did find a Spot Fly this year - just twitched the Tempsford ones when they first arrived).  MJP

Target secured

This weekend, I undertook a monumental tour of outlying villages around Potton, taking in farmland around Everton, Tempsford, Sutton, Eyeworth, Cockayne Hatley and this morning, Wrestlingworth finally struck gold. Not just one Whinchat either, but three in the same field. Persistence finally paid off, although I estimate it took about 20 miles of walking, several litres of water and a potassium overdose through too many bananas to get there. But it was worth every minute, with many other (non-counting) highlights along the way.

That takes me to 116 - 97 of which were on foot within a three mile radius of Potton.