I actually went birding!

A shock I know.  Had to find my optics as it's been a while!  Just lost the desire over the last few months, too many other things going on.

Anyway, I decided to take a trip around the local patch.  For the morning dog walk I decided to take a different route, this proved a good choice as I came across a field with at least 25 Yellow Wagtail present.  I hung around for a bit and had loads of Goldfinch, Linnet and about 30 Meadow Pipit. Quite a few Swallow were heading south.  I hoped for something better, but no joy and it was starting to get hot so I headed back home. Had a male Sparrowhawk drop in with its breakfast - a young Blackbird, and the local Kestrel was busy flushing the wagtails.

It was surprisingly hot so I spent the afternoon sat in the garden, kind of working, kind of keeping an eye on the sky.  There was loads of hirundines over the house, presumably a mix of the local breeding birds and some migrants as the Swallows just seemed to be going south.  A Buzzard caught my eye high in the sky, then another, then another couple even higher.  All four birds drifted south at quite some height. Several Meadow Pipit and Yellow Wagtails could be heard as they also passed south. Quite a lot of Lesser Black-backed Gulls were moving about, as they have been doing over recent days, one bird caught my eye as it looked real good for Yellow-legged Gull.  There's been a few in the local gull flock that has been in the fields so chances are fairly high as they move around. Not happy with the brevity of the views so want more to be 100% satisfied!

Late afternoon/early evening I decided to go down to North Duffield Carrs, for about the first time since about May (I've really been that busy!).  Had 4 Marsh Harriers flying about - there had been 8 birds roost the other night, which, apparently is a local area record. Otherwise is was fairly quite with the odd Swallow, Yellow Wagtail and Meadow Pipit heading south along the river. Still lots of dragonflies shooting about the place too. A flock of five disant geese disappeared, too early for Pink-feet???

I decided to check the wagtail field again, most of them cleared off as I approached, at least 32 Yellow Wagtail and a number of Meadow Pipit, was bad viewing as I was looking straight into the sun.  Highlight however was a smart autumn plumage Wheatear sat on a straw bale.  The Sparrowhawk and Kestrel were still hanging round too!  Hopefully I'll check out the area in the morning when the light might  be better.