Whinchat - Elton Common

 Another interesting day, I started off in the conifers along Flash Lane and was both surprised and pleased to hear the Turtle Dove purring. It's a month since I last heard it and this is the latest I've ever recorded it. Seems unlikely it will return next year, but that's what I thought last year, fingers crossed! 

Whilst on the edge of the wood I heard a Common Greenshank calling, it called for perhaps 30 seconds and I thought it may have been circling the flooded field by the sharp corner but there was no sign of it when I checked.

This afternoon I went to the Elton Common area to look at the gulls which are starting to increase in number. I saw several hundred Lesser Black-backed but wasn't able to get anywhere near them so will have to wait until they favour a field closer to the road.

Whilst cycling the lanes I saw several Redstart, a Stonechat and a single Whinchat. It looks like a moulting adult female and it's the first time I've seen one at Elton Common and my first of the autumn.

Whinchat - female