Nethergong Birding

I had a little extra time this morning so was out early at 05:45 until midday where I had a good walk around the patch. In still but quite cloudy conditions, I managed to see or hear 59 species which is very good here for late September. I'm sure if I had stayed longer it would have been a 60 species day as I hadn't seen Great Tit or Long tailed Tit. Birds seen today included 2 Little Owl calling early morning, 1 Barn Owl, 1 Grey Partridge calling at dawn, 41 Greylag Geese, 10 Mute Swan, c200 Herring Gull, 39 Black headed Gull, 38 Cormorant, 1 Little Egret, 2 Grey Heron, 2 Marsh Harrier, 1 Sparrowhawk, 2 Common Buzzard, 1 Kingfisher, 2 Great spotted Woodpecker and 2 Green Woodpecker. There were 3 Kestrel, 1 Peregrine, 2 Jay, 2 Raven, 23 Skylark, 2 Reed Warbler, 2 Sand Martin, 35 Swallow, 70 House Martin, 3 Chiffchaff, 4 Cetti's Warbler, 2 Blackcap, 1 Firecrest, 2 Mistle Thrush, 1 Whinchat, 5 Stonechat, 1 Wheatear, 2 Pied Wagtail, 9 Meadow Pipit, 2 Bullfinch, 58 Linnet, 40 Goldfinch, 2 Corn Bunting and 11 Reed Bunting. Despite a good look again, it looks likely that I will not see Spotted Flycatcher, Pied Flycatcher or Redstart this year. I'm sure they would have passed through when I've been at work but I was hoping for at least one of them to boost the year list which seems to have paused at present. 'Nocmig' continues to be woeful with only a Little Owl recorded of late and if the year list is to move on, I need a few birds passing over at night and a decent winter too. You never know what's around the corner in birding so fingers crossed for something decent in the coming months. 

Stonechat - male