Wee migrants

The Sedge Warbler in the garden on Sunday was the first seen actually in the garden in the time we've lived here, despite the species breeding just a few hundred metres away. There was another in a more familiar haunt yesterday, one in the hawthorn hedge.

A surprise on Sunday was a Whooper Swan on the sea amongst the summering flock at Palace. I didn't get Whooper on the Palace patch last year so very welcome.

This smart Knot was at Northside.

Breeding waders at The Loons.

There was a smart Reed Bunting at the beginning of the hawthorn hedge yesterday evening which tempted me with the camera, it disappeared into the thorns but then something flicked. Suddenly I was on to a flycatcher. It looked quite small and short-tailed. No white in the wing, no white in the tail and I couldn't see any streaking on the breast or flanks. However there did seem to be streaking on the forehead. It took about half an hour to get a view that showed the feint streaking on the breast, but in that time I had ruled out something more exciting due to the lack of an eye ring and feint flank streaking. Educational.

I'd been hunting around the hedge as there were the first hoverflies of the year in the ditch by the track, at least three Eristalis pertinax and a number of bumble impersonators which I've not yet got around to identifying, later. I should have put the moth traps out as well but somehow fell asleep in front of Jules...