The Cattle egret was still above the footbridge at the Gann this morning along with 6-7 Little egret, initially in the field with the dozen cows beside Whiteholmes Farm and later resting among the large gulls by the footbridge. 2 ruff on the pools was the pick of the waders and a couple of Little grebe. Pair of red kite batting away the attentions of local jackdaws. Another Cettis warbler by Crabhall after the Mullock bridge bird of a few days ago.

Whilst plodding around Dale airfield Saturday afternoon, hoping for an interesting pipit or bunting, approaching the pond 6-7 raspy snipe got up as expected followed by another much closer quieter bird that was much slower to take flight and just revealed itself with a whir of wing beats. At first i was thinking it was a woodcock. I got the binoculars on it and it wasn’t a woodcock though it did look stout. It was flying low and I hurriedly got the camera on it for a video but it doesn’t show anything as it had presumably dropped down. Hmmm I was a bit baffled. I hadn’t considered Great snipe but having done a bit of reading there are some similarities, (a habit to flush late, a small woodcock like appearance, can be silent when taking flight, and to fly low before dropping into cover) and it seems September into October is prime time. I had another look this evening but just Common snipe. It was on the eastern side of the pond, between the pond and eastern runway.  Lots of skylark and pipits these last few days with their chirrup and sip-sip calls constantly overhead so not surprisingly a first Merlin dashing through tonight.