At last! Fieldfares arrived on the patch today, with a total of 56 seen, made up mainly of one flock of 34.
There was a good selection of birds with a couple of Skylarks over and both Siskins and Redpolls around the lake. Eleven Redwings were seen but today was my first walk without any summer migrants. The lake itself remains very quiet with just 47 Mallards and 10 Moorhens on it but a Grey Wagtail was on the Waterfall.
This afternoon I had a walk around Share Farm where I had a skein of 60 geese go over S/West but unfortunately they were too high up to ID with the binoculars. Consolation was a lone Lapwing which flew north.

Sunday 21st

I left the house at 07.30 this morning with rain still falling, as it had been doing most of the night. As I walked into the field  behind Kirkins Close a pair of Canada Geese flew noisily overhead.The constant rain meant that there wasn't much flying over but as I neared the corner of the hedge in Gibbet Lane I heard a Ring Ouzel(111) call from inside the hedge(BRILLIANT!!). Unfortunately as I took a few steps closer it left the hedge and climbed higher before disappearing East over the village. Luckily this gave me some excellent views of it as it flew round. This is only the second I've seen on the patch,the other being a male which stayed a couple of days in May 2007.
Down at the lake there was a flock of about 70 Chaffinches which had at least half a dozen Bramblings amongst them. Apart from this there were 7 Siskins and a flyover Redpoll and 12 Redwings of note(still no Fieldfares).
On the way home a Chiffchaff was in the hedge in Gibbet Lane.
During the afternoon I went down to the lake and saw a Grey Wagtail and a Kingfisher in the gloom.

Saturday 13/10/12

The day started with a couple of Lesser Redpolls calling as I left the house. As I walked into what was Kirkins Orchard,before it was cleared , I was treated to a Brambling flying over. I stayed at the top of the field for about forty minutes as there is a a really good view from here and watched as a total of 53 Jackdaws flew south as they left their roost. There was a steady trickle of birds overhead which included 8 Redwings, 9 Redpolls, 18 Pied Wagtails, 5 Meadow Pipits, 6 Chaffinch, 4 Stock Doves, a Mistle Thrush, 3 Linnets, a Greenfinch, 2 Bullfinches plus the local Jays which were busy collecting acorns.
Down at the lake there were 30 Siskins and 11 Lesser Redpolls.
The water is still very quiet with just 22 Mallards and 12 Moorhens but the Kingfisher put in a brief appearance and the Water Rail once again called, unseen, from the reeds at the southern end.
In the bottom field  were 30 Pied Wagtails and 16 Meadow Pipits. A skylark called as it went south.Just as I was leaving a Drake Mandarin and then a Grey Heron flew in.
The only summer migrants seen were 2 Chiffchaffs.
In the afternoon I had a quick walk around Share Farm and added Yellowhammer, Canada Goose and Kestrel to the day total bringing it to a respectable 49!!

Week Ending 07/10/12

After a damp start on Saturday the sun decided to make an appearance which made for very a pleasant walk. The rain overnight had bought in about 150 House Martins and 30 Swallows over the lakeside orchard and meant there were still 6 Chiffchaffs around the lake.There was a good mixed flock of tits in the paddock on the Shirrenden side which had a rather smart Marsh Tit in it.
The Birch trees behind the boat house held a flock of 40 Siskins and 2 Lesser Redpolls.
The lake itself didn't throw up any surprises but there were 9 Mandarins(5 Drakes & 4 ducks) and a Water Rail called from the southern end.
By the end of my walk I had seen 46 species .
On Sunday I was hoping for a movement of birds and as it happens there did seem to be just that,with a few little flocks of Chaffinches and the odd Siskin going over West. The first flock of Redwings (18) went over plus a flock of 20 Song Thrushes.Unfortunately at this point I was called out to work so had to leave at 07.45am so I will never know if it got better.
This afternoon we went for a little walk in the rain and saw 50 Siskins, 12 Goldfinches and a flock of  35 Redpolls as we walked the footpath though Shirrenden.
There was also 14 House Martins feeding over the Oaks and 2 Swallows flew through going North.

Last weekend of September

Saturday started a bit on the chilly side but I went out with great expectancy. Bird numbers were good and it was pleasing to find some summer migrants still around. There were House Martins and Swallows passing overhead all the time heading a WSW direction and in all there I counted about 400 and 120 respectively. At the lake I found 6 Chiffchaffs and a Blackcap and there were 20 Meadow Pipits & 16 Pied wagtails in the cleared field at the southern end.On the lake itself were 52 Mallard & 10 Mandarins and as I watched them a Kingfisher landed on a branch right next to me.On the waterfall a Grey wagtail was busy feeding.
In the afternoon I had a little walk with my wife and decided to walk around to the Shirrenden side of the lake and was delighted find a Cetti's Warbler(110) in the South East corner which called a couple of times before disappearing into the undergrowth. FANTASTIC!! Not only a new bird for the year list but a new one for the Patch.

September update

Unfortunately birding has rather taken a back seat during the last month due to work and other commitments at weekends. The shortening days have also conspired to prevent me from making visits before work which is rather frustrating!
The first week of the month was spent on the Isle of Wight on a family break. We were very fortunate to have a sunny week. I did get to do some birding every morning before the rest of the family were up and found a few migrants during my forays.We were staying not too far from Bembridge Harbour which is where I did most of my watching( which is a great place to see good numbers of Med Gulls).
There seemed to be Redstarts everywhere we went which was great as I've not had one on the patch this year.

I spent some time in the pursuit of Red Squirrels which proved very difficult to photograph although I did get some iffy pictures.
Anyway back to the patch. I did add Yellow Wagtail (109) to the year total with a flyover on Sunday 8th Sept, which had been a long time coming!
On the 17th of the month I got a decent walk on a day that looked promising but didn't turn up anything new although I saw 5 Buzzards and a juvenile Hobby circling over the lake.There were still about 30 Swallows, 10 House Matins and 2 Sand Martins over the orchards and plenty of Chiffchaffs around the lake with a few Meadow pipits going over plus 2 Siskins.
The first Water Rail of the Autumn was seen on the edge of the reeds on the 22nd.

First week of August

The patch week began on the third with the appearance of 2 Mallard ducks with ducklings (6 & 5). In the lane there were 2 newly fledged Spotted Flycatchers which have come from the pair at Lake Cottage.The ditch opposite the pumping station held the first Sedge Warbler(108). At the southern end of the lake the field had 22 Mistle Thrushes feeding among the poles for the fruit trees.On the lake there were 8 Mandarins and on the waterfall 2 Grey Wagtails. Around at the paddocks 16 Pied Wagtails on the mowed grass.          

                                                    Spotted Flycatcher at Lake Cottage
On the sixth I popped in after work and saw 6 Swifts, 2 Kingfishers, 10 Swallows and the first autumn Sand Martin.
Today when I stopped off at the lake there were good numbers of birds in the lakeside trees, which included 6 Willow Warblers, 10 Long Tailed Tits, 4 Whitethroats, 8 Chiffchaffs and 3 Reed Warblers. The 2 Kingfishers were chasing each other around the lake and the 2 Grey Wagtails were on the stream.Nine Mandarins were resting in trees on the east side. A decent flock of Swallows, numbering about 50 were flying over the water with half a dozen House Martins and 2 Sand Martins and a Hobby was hawking insects over the wet wood and a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker flew down the lake disappearing into the Alders.
On the insect front I managed a picture of a Roesel's Bush Cricket at the weekend (see Below):-