Sunday 6 August 2017

Canons Farm, 6th August 2017

I was highly tempted to join the autumn's first Leith Hill Tower vismig session this morning but decided to let myself wake up when I happened to rather than setting any ridiculous alarms. This resolved to be around 9.30am and, with a party to attend in the afternoon, I opted for a quick look around the local patch. After all, I hadn't been to Canons for almost a month and I sometimes get a nice 'welcome back' present when I break a spell of patch neglect. While counting a scattering of Swifts moving ahead, my eye was drawn to a dark shape hanging in the air many levels higher. It lazily circled almost directly overhead and its shaped betrayed it as a migrating Marsh Harrier. Fortunately, I managed to secure a few record shots with my trusty PowerShot. This is my fifth individual at the patch, with previous sightings split equally between the Canons Farm and the Banstead Woods sections of the recording area.

My Swift total finished on around 25 birds but other observers boosted this number by 38. I couldn't find any notable grounded migrants but it was nice to see one of the local Little Owls flying along a field margin.

'cream-crown' Marsh Harrier