Well it has been a pretty good week, starting with last weekend. The original plan was to head down to Cornwall for a long weekend of seawatching but following correspondance with one of the locals, the weather forecast was rubbish fo seabirds so I stayed at home.

Despite early rain on Sunday morning I managed to get my nets open in the garden by half nine and was soon catching birds. A greenfinch tape certainly helped as the birds were piling into the garden and at one time I had 17 in one net! By 11:30 I realised that I hadn't been back in the house! By lunchtime things had gone quiet but I had still managed 44 new, mainly greenfinch, and 5 re-traps including another of our nestbox great tits.

The arrival of several greenish warblers and wrynecks along the coast on Tuesday encouraged me to spend my day off (Wednesday) birding along the coast. First stop was the reserve. Despite it still being thick fog at 6am there didn't seem to be very much about. The dunes produced 2 turtle doves but at Thornham Point the highlights were 4 magpie, 2 woodpigeon and a reed bunting!! The fresh marsh was better with heaps of waders.
The gardens and coastal scrub along the coast path between Brancaster and Burnham Deepdale have always looked good for migrants and I have spent a few hours looking for stuff in the autumn with a single yellow-browed found so far. Things were not looking great as I had almost got to Brancaster Staithe before seeing a bird! A tit flock was moving along the hedgeline so I tried a bit pf pishing and pulled them in. Most of the birds were long-tails but there was also several blackcap, lesser whitethroat and a couple of chiffchaffs. A warbler flicked overhead into some large willows and showed long enough for the bold eyestripe to stand out - my own greenish warbler!! The bird was very elusive and it took another 20mins before I had better views including the short wingbar and eyestripe. The bird was seeming to favour the same group of trees and I put the news out. I saw the bird again several times over the next 50mins but by the time other people had arrived it had moved on.

Hopefully the rest of the autumn will be as successful!

Now the juv ruff are coming through in numbers, the annual weekly claims of buff breasted sand have started so when one came over the radio yesterday afternoon I was slightly sceptical. I was asked to go to Parrinder Hide to check a wader that people thought was a buff breast. The description over the radio on the way down sounded like ruff so I was pretty surprised to find a buff breasted sandpiper feeding within 10m of the hide!! The hide was buzzing with excitement especially as the bird was getting closer and ended up within 10ft feeding with 10 ruff, 20 dunlin and a cracking juv curlew sand.

Despite the disturbance with the coastal project and our management work, the fresh marsh is looking awesome. This afternoon there were 100 dunlin, 60 ringed plover, 45 ruff, 4 curlew sands, 2 green sands, greenshank, juv arctic tern, spoonbill plus the buff breast - I can't wait to see the place pulls in next autumn once the work has finished.

With the small arrival of passerines yesterday I decided to check Thornham Point but the weather had cleared up too quickly with the only thing of note an adult turtle dove flushed from the dunes.

Ringing has been pretty amazing with over 150 birds rung over the last 2 weekends. Mostly tits but there has been a few goodies including this lesser whitethroat, 3 whitethroat, 4 treecreeper and a juv jay. A green sand and greeshank were on the new lake this Saturday and a singing turtle dove the week before.

Juv green woodpecker - a ringing tick for me. There has been at least 3 birds in the wood recently so it was nice to finally catch one.

Juv chiffchaff in the garden. A nice surprise considering how slow it has been in the garden this month with the windy conditions. Only 22 new of which 12 were ringed on Sunday.

This bird was singing nearby so I put on a tape. Within 5 mins I saw movement near the nets and found this cracker in the bottom shelf!

Cimbex connatus or alder sawfly - the beast (nearly 1 inch long) was brought into the visitor centre last week. All the sawfly species are under-recorded although the larval forms were found on the reserve last year. Although they are now spreading, they went unrecorded in the UK for 90 years until 1997. Since then there has been a increase in records throughout southern Britain.

Jammed in on a cracking 2nd calendar year male Montagu's harrier near home this evening hunting over a cereal field. Awesome birds especially with their graceful boyant flight.

Been going through a few photos and thought I would post a few.

3 of the 4 temmincks stint that were present in the spring. These birds were showing well near the Island Hide but unfortunatly the light wasn't good.

Straw underwing moth caught a few nights ago at home.

Still wet otter track on the small bridge on the path to the Island Mere hide at Minsmere - probably scared it as I was walking along!

Part of the recent roosting knot flock on the fresh marsh over recent high tides. Upto 3000 have been recorded many still in summer plumage.

Best ever breeding season for avocet with a peak of 80 nests and over 100 nesting attempts. Good numbers of young hatched with at least 12 staying on the fresh marsh to fledging.

Mid-summer blues I am afraid hence no real activity here. Wader numbers are starting to build up now with large numbers of knot and godwits. There has been a cracking summer plumage curlew sand for the last week and there was 6 spotshank this afternoon. It should only be a matter of time now before and good wader, probably a pec, turns up.

14 crossbills over the garden on Sunday was a nice surprise although there has been a small movement along the coast in the last couple of weeks.

After only just getting back from our Colorado trip, our next one is already planned. This one is a bit bigger - we are off to NE India in February next year. Very different to our last few trips, all the birds, culture and scenery will be very different. The trip still has a few things to confirm but we will be going to the famous Eagles Nest and into the foothills of the Himalayas. It will be a bit of an adventure especially as we are going with Dave and Mandy who are infamous for having something go wrong!!

Just got back for a manic weekend at Minsmere with Adam, Hayley and the boys. After building their new climbing frame on Saturday (rewarded with nice views of white admiral, brown argus and purple hairstreak), I got a few hours on the reserve on Sunday morning.

Despite the lack of recent rain, the scrapes were looking good. 3 spoonbill and a couple of juv med gulls were present but no sign of any roseate terns that had been around. The 'lucky pool' on the south levels had 10 little gull, 3 spotshank and 5 greenshank including a colour-ringed bird. It was also nice to see several broods of lapwing and redshank around the reserve. Scanning the moulting gadwall paid off as the fudge duck was sleeping with them although it is a pretty grotty individual. The highlight however were the bitterns. At least 4 indivuduals were feeding in various places around the mere with at least one doing a couple of flights around the pool. Back in the garden, we had at least 50 crossbills over in small flocks during the morning.

Found an icterine warbler singing on the reserve today...nice