September Update: a Change of Season
The change of season has brought a good month of birding on our New Forest heathland patch. Weekly counts of 53 species on three occasions beat our previous September record of 52, with some warm, sunny weather enabling plenty of opportunities to get out and about. Several additions to the year list have brought the 2023 total up to 95; as usual, full lists and bar charts are available on eBird at: https://ebird.org/hotspot/L12697095 The arrival of Yellow Wagtails (fig 1) on the 1st of September was a week later than last year; as usual their appearance on the football pitches coincided with the presence of cattle, and was often associated with a large, mixed flock of Pied Wagtails and Meadow Pipits . Sightings continued until the last week of the month, which was also later than in 2022. Wheatear and Spotted Flycatcher were seen regularly throughout September, along with Whinchat and Redstart in the earlier weeks. Chiffchaff, Common Whitethroat and Blackcap ...