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!