Night-heronYesterday was a bit of a duff day at Canons and Eagle and I had an eye on the Woodchat Shrike in Essex - but so did a Sparrowhawk it seems; shortly after leaving late in the morning it came through that the bird had been taken - unbelievable!!! I have never had any luck with Woodchats in the past and I thought this would be the one . . . Eagle needed Night-heron so we tapped Two Tree Island into the sat-nav. The bird was very easy to locate and showed well; the first juvenile that I've seen in these shores (I saw the adult at West Hythe a couple of years ago). We bumped into Richard 'Lord Holmesdale' Draper and Peter 'Polo' Grady. We returned to Canons for an evening check, to find that Loony Field had been ploughed and was being enjoyed by a Common Buzzard and three Wheatears. I wonder what else might get on the plough???
Eagle picked me up at 6.15am this morning and within five minutes of leaving the car we could hear a Grasshopper Warbler reeling! Another good bird! I had to hear it a couple more times to make sure I wasn't still in bed dreaming before sending out the text. Badgeman, Phantom, Factor, Slasher and Shaft gave it a go - the former three hearing the bird by 9.00am. It took a long time before the bird showed, Badgeman and I getting a clear but brief view of it near the edge of the hedge, creeping up towards the top. A male Yellow Wagtail provided a nice year tick for me and Eagle's 80th CFBW bird.
I do have a recording of the bird but am trying to figure out how to put it on here . . .
Canons Farm & Banstead Woods Year List 2011: 85 (67 at this point last year)
