Last weekend the arrival of a female Siberian Stonechat at South Landing spurred me into action and I managed to creep away for a couple of hours to have a look. A quick reference to Martin Garner's invaluable Autumn book from the Challenge series refreshed what the points of interest were, especially as there were initially thoughts (unfounded) of Stejneger's. Thankfully I have also been working on heaths in south Devon and had become acquainted with the white-rumped intergrades into rubicola from hibernans. On arrival it looked to be a pale and a uniformly pale peach rump was shown in flight as well as the upper-tail pattern pointing to a female Siberian rather than Caspian. The bird showed exceptionally well along a series of posts and I got great views although the light was somewhat dull and I made do with some cruddy record shots.
A Swift hawking by Highcliffe Manor was my first on patch this year after seeing a couple in the week around and about. A trip to Thornwick Pools failed to locate much of interest but news of a Wood Warbler at South Landing had me speeding in that direction post haste. I failed to see the bird but I was the only person who wasn't on site as it was found to hear it sing as a couple of penny spins were let go before it melted away. Good enough for a patch year tick anyway...
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