Autumn on the patch

I've been making a bit more of an effort to catch up with autumn migrants on my local patch at Swineham over the past few weeks. My visits in recent years have often been necessarily fleeting, involving a brisk canter around the gravel pits trying to cover as much of the area as possible. This autumn I have tried a different strategy, lingering in a few of the more promising looking spots for passerines, and not worrying about trying to cover all the ground. It's worked quite well, and I've started to appreciate the old place a bit more as a result. But a late evening walk tonight was bright, breezy and almost completely birdless, so I had reverted to type and was doing a circuit of the gravel pits when, heading west up the Piddle Valley, something made me look back: Great White Egret in a ditch - patch tick! It looked like it had clocked me before I clocked it, made a few short flights and settled to feed in amongst a herd of cows. A few pictures of the Egret and some other recent migrants below.

Great White Egret - difficult to miss

A huge bird, much larger than the familiar Little Egret

It or another has been seen recently at Lytchett  Bay, Middlebere and in the From Valley 

No point trying to be stealthy when you're that colour mate

Reed Warblers have been moving through though it's difficult to tell the migrants from the residents with this species which breeds in good numbers at Swineham

Reed Warbler

Whitethroat is surprisingly rare at Swineham - this one of two earlier in the month

Lesser Whitethroat is even rarer - three together a few weeks ago was quite a record

A juvenile Spotted Flycatcher was also a belated patch tick this autumn

Always a treat to see one of these

A steady stream of Willow Warblers over recent weeks seems to be tailing off

Always an attractive species at this time of year

Willow Warbler

Plenty of Sedge Warblers also around the gravel pits

Not a great year for them breeding at Swineham so presumed migrants

An acrobatic Sedge Warbler