The early stages

Autumn is a favourite time of year of mine and I've been enjoying getting out in the field over the course of the last couple of weeks. Wader movement has started, with Wood, Green and Common Sandpipers, and Common Snipe, among the species showing up on local wetlands. Even a Pectoral Sandpiper dropped in, though that unfortunately wasn't my find.

juvenile Common Sandpiper

However, it has been passerines that have been most exciting in these early stages of autumn movement so far. My first highlight was a showy first-winter Grasshopper Warbler, followed in the next few days by a Common Redstart and two Common Nightingales calling – unseen – in dense vegetation on the clifftops on separate visits. Western Yellow Wagtails have been a delight, both as soft calls overhead and feeding among cattle.

adult female Western Yellow Wagtail

Clouded Yellow

first-summer Yellow-legged Gull

Checking through the gulls has been less fruitful and I've had the worst luck I can remember with summer Yellow-legged Gulls. It wasn't until today that I found one. It wasn't the expected juvenile but instead a brutish second-calendar-year bird. Mediterranean Gulls have been more obvious, moving offshore and congregating in loafing flocks along with Sandwich Terns, their demanding young of the year in tow. Catching up with a Black Tern was another recent highlight.