October patch birding became a lot more difficult as the days shortened and sunrise got later and later. Work pressures started to build too.
The month started well on the 1st when I met up with John Young for a birthday related trip (his not mine) to Dungeness. Swallows passed by throughout the first part of the morning, together with smaller numbers of house and sand martin. We found a dartford warbler along Galloways and caught up with other summer migrants before they left UK shores for warmer climes further south.
I returned to Dungeness on the 14th when there was another good period of vis-mig. With John, we logged 55 skylarks, 293 house martin, 162 swallow, two sand martin, 173 chaffinch, 11 brambling, 200+ goldfinch, 60 siskins, nine tree sparrow and linnet passing over. On the nearby RSPB reserve, 3 caspian gulls gave good views to enable study, and two glossy ibis gave the day a hint of the Mediterranean. A self-found calling yellow-browed warbler refused to show itself as the sun set. However, the highlight of the day wasn’t a bird but several ornate shieldbugs, which are absolutely stunning.
Within the 10km patch, the last remaining summer migrants were still showing themselves at the start of October, which included sedge warbler, reed warbler and lesser whitethroat. Chiffchaff numbers seemed to peak too. As the month progressed, warblers disappeared and the late autumn migrants became the cast of my morning walks.
October highlights included three firecrest on the 3rd, 370+ chaffinch west on the 7th, and the first pulses of redwing and fieldfare. I twitched the on-patch crane in the early afternoon of the 17th and was lucky to watch it feeding on Chislet Marshes without anyone around. Later that day, I found a dartford warbler and great white egret back at Reculver. A hen harrier at dusk on the 19th, and then a goosander, three red-breasted merganser and six in-off white-fronted geese on the 20th were the last highlights of an intensive 2022 on-patch birding effort.
As the Chair of Surrey Bird Club, I also used October to complete some desk research to identify and locate a new Surrey ad-hoc patch. I made my first visit on the way to and from a work event on the 8th and 9th. The location, the Mole Valley, was chosen based on it being a very short diversion from the M25, so that when I am travelling back to Surrey/Hampshire for other reasons, I can pop in and minimise additional miles and carbon. It is also under watched and includes some water and high ground, both important for an inland patch. I won’t make special trips to this ‘ad-hoc patch,’ but I hope to find a few things on those occasions I do visit. My first two visits included firecrest and marsh tit, and a total of 48 species.
The last week of October was spent in the highlands of Scotland with my wife. This a place that I love and always enjoy returning to. This year, we based ourselves on Black Isle, and Udale Bay became the patch for the week. Highlights included large flocks of scaup, long-tailed duck, various geese species and slavonian grebe. During the holiday, I found an Iceland gull at Gairloch on the 24th, whilst Sarah purchased a coffee in a nearby cafe. Given that white-winged gulls are a favourite of mine, I was particularly pleased to bump into one. Other Scottish highlights included three golden eagle, a white-tailed eagle, 14 black-throated diver in a west coast bay feeding together, dazzling male long-tailed ducks in a flock of 73 birds on the Moray Coast, close views of great northern diver as we ate lunch, whooper swans, and a surprise puffin at Dornoch.
The final day of October was a short morning trip back in Kent to North Foreland. I was hoping a pallid swift might still be present. Unfortunately, none were, but three spoonbills flying along the coast in an eastwards direction were a pleasant surprise. When they reached the end of the coastline, and the vast swathe of sea to the east became apparent, it was interesting to see how the birds circled for a period before U-turning to flyback along the coast. As the birds travelled westwards, they were seen by others along the north Kent coast. At the end of the day, I caught up with a black brant at Reculver.
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