Autumn Passage is on!

Had a busy week last week which involved a lot of report writing and even some maths in the form of Population Viability Modelling, so birding was pretty much on the back-burner.  I did manage however to hear Green Woodpecker from the garden again.  Last week I had a single Common Sandpiper on a small pool on the outskirts of York while looking for Sacred Ibis (no joy with the Ibis) which I thought was a sign of Autumn. (also had a Hobby here).

Yesterday Tim said that he'd had the first Green Sandpiper of the Autumn at Hes East so I thought I'd take a look this morning to see if there was anything else about.  The Green Sandpiper was still present (see phone-scoped photo below) but more interestingly was the flock of (at least) 7 Common Sandpiper that were present along the main lake. There could have been more as they were moving into vegetation to roost and were difficult to count at times, but the maximum I had out in the open at any one time was 7!

I'd be interested to hear what the largest flock of Common Sandpiper is in the York area - wonder if this flock breaks the record? (if there is one!)

 Green Sandpiper (Phone-scoped)

Green Sandpiper (Phone-scoped)

Will be interesting to see what else gets turned up at the site over the Autumn months...