Today’s forcast was dominated by rain and strong Southerly winds, a circuit of the headland in waterproofs first thing was mostly uninterrupted by notable birds except my first Brambling of the autumn, perched calling in the Top wood. My second attempt this afternoon was more successful as I almost immediately bumped into a very vocal Yellow–browed warbler on Foxhill down.
The bird showed nicely on and off for 15 mins then became more illusive.
Prior to this; a period of high pressure stretching back the past week or so has resulted in very little to write about. A potentially blythi type Lesser whitethroat was on the edge of Top wood on the 29th. The bird, which I take to be juvenile (on iris colour) seems to show a brown nape and rear crown and from what I can see an almost entirely white outermost tail feather, no calls heard and no definitive tail photos sadly. I see a blythi type individual was trapped at Portland a day or two ago.
The Same day I had 2 Grasshopper Warblers, there must be quite a few still lurking up there despite the date.
Whilst looking through the 30+ Stonechats currently residing in the top fields a Short-eared Owl burst out of the grass nearby.
It circled round and put down elsewhere, later in the evening Amy and I came back up and watched it hunting at dusk in the still, unseasonably warm dusk.
