The only way is up

I knew it would get better, and it has. In the last few days Nick had a Whinchat, Tony had a Redstart, Marco had a Spotted Flycatcher. I didn't see any of those, and indeed Saturday morning was pretty quiet all things considered. Business as usual.

But last night I was doing a bit a of a 'live' noc-migging and what turned out to be a Whimbrel flew over. Thinking I wouldn't be hearing anything bar the usual sirens and gunshots I hadn't started recording, and instead was just listening to the feed whilst lying in bed. Luckily Bob came to the rescue. He doesn't live far away, and he had been recording, so in the morning after I'd mentioned to him that I'd heard something that was probably decent at 11.31pm precisely he went and found that something. I must have been nearly asleep as I didn't think that there were as many notes as Whimbrel, but sure enough when Bob played it back there was the trace. It had called four times but I'd only heard three of them - I probably missed the initial really faint one. It's only the eighth time I've had Whimbrel on the patch, but six of those have now been in this manner, a nocturnal observation. Obviously it's not as good as actually seeing the birds flying over, but I still find it quite exciting to think that what are really rather rare patch birds are flying over my garden at night.

I was up early this morning, hitting the main playing fields as the sun rose red in the sky. There were no waders on Alex, quelle surprise, but I did get a flyover Tree Pipit just before 7am. I initially blanked it out which was very stupid of me given it was one of my targets for the morning, but it did the decent thing and called quite a few times before disappearing off south west. A number of the team had managed a rare spring record so it was good to catch up. 

So as predicted things are looking up and I think I have timed my return just about right. I probably could have skipped last week, and the weekend as well actually, but now seems to be the time. I hope I can continue to both listen late and night and get up early in the morning!

The fencing is coming down soon.

This is what four months of constant repair looks like. An eyesore.