As soon as I went into the garden this morning to "do" my moth traps, a short task at the moment, I was greeted with a chorus of Chiffchaff calls. Once I'd completed noting the 77 moths, the best for a few days, that were in my traps, I went to the monument. As I left the car there were at least six Chiffchaffs in the tree next to the Bluebird tea rooms. I wandered down past the paddock towards the farm and I counted quite a few more, but little else other than two striking male Blackcaps. I met Jack, who'd just done the gun site and we walked to Hope Point. In all we counted over 120 Chiffchaffs, and I got the feeling that if we'd been able to search every bush and tree there would have been many more. We watched a Hobby over the Freedown, but before it came into lens range it was seen off the premises by a rather belligerent Crow. A couple of Wheatears and a few Whitethroats completed the migrants, so in reality what had appeared to be a promising fall of migrants really consisted mainly one species.
All through the morning we were accompanied by a couple of Spitfires with their helicopter minders. Today is Battle of Britain day, and the helicopter passengers have the opportunity to photograph the Spitfires in the air space that saw so much action 71 years ago.
All through the morning we were accompanied by a couple of Spitfires with their helicopter minders. Today is Battle of Britain day, and the helicopter passengers have the opportunity to photograph the Spitfires in the air space that saw so much action 71 years ago.




2 comments:
There were loads of Chiffy's at Dunge as well yesterday, a very apt blog title!
This autumn in SE London I've seen/heard Chiffchaffs, occasionally into double figure counts, every day for perhaps 5 or 6 weeks now. Many are local birds, but whatever the source I think this year is a good one for this species (but in contrast, very few migrant Willow Warblers passing through).
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