One of the great joys and frustrations of birding is that every year is different! Come August, I am out looking for autumn migrants - flycatchers, warblers, redstarts and chats - walking the fields, scanning the hedgerows and checking the local gravel pits for waders too.  I check dates from previous years when I discovered birds and the frustration grows if those dates pass and still no birds!

This August has proved fairly quiet so far with a trickle of expected waders - Greenshank, Ringed Plover and Dunlin - and, while foraging tit flocks have grown, nothing out of the ordinary has revealed itself.  I have had to content myself instead with the usual fayre of Willow Warblers, Chiffchaffs, Lesser and Common Whitethroats, Blackcaps and Garden Warblers.  Of course, watching these flocks is enjoyable and I recently watched group of perhaps a hundred birds pushed this way and that through the trees by a stealthy Sparrowhawk.

While not rare at all by most people's standards, this little bird, at least for me, constituted the first 'proper' autumn discovery and my first for the year anywhere in the UK.  I'm sure there'll be plenty more this autumn but for the moment my 'birding battery' was recharged!

Thankfully I didn't have to wait long for the next boost as the headline photo suggests.  A call yesterday from a local friend alerted me to his discovery of a Pied Flycatcher along the River Ver near his house.  This is a truly good migrant bird to catch up with and one that I don't always see every year so without hesitation I was there, bins in hand, camera at the ready!

Thankfully the bird gave great and prolonged views as it sallied for insects and grubs low down in the scrub by the river.  Many of my previous encounters with these birds have been all too brief as they are masters of disappearing and, when active, can flit fast and furiously within the canopy, denying good views.  This one, however, gave some of the best view I've had to date and took my "Five Miles From Home" year list to 141.

This is one of my favourite walks and only a couple of hours drive from home.  The views are immense - across The Channel to France - and the mighty white cliffs are as dramatic as they are rich in wildlife.  For me, it is one of Britain's best-kept secrets - a stretch of beautiful coastline right next to Dover's busy ferry terminal.

My visit wasn't wildlife-focussed but instead a pleasant walk with good friends, however, nevertheless I encountered a new (for me) species of butterfly - my first ever Chalk Hill Blue.  I stressed to my friends that these were scarce butterflies but it was hard to believe as they were everywhere!  Clearly the chalk downland above the cliffs suited them perfectly.

The males are a beautiful pale blue - a chalky-blue in my mind - lacking the rich depth in colour of Common or Adonis Blues.  Their wings are surrounding by a darker border while the females, as is typical with the blue butterflies, are a more discreet brown. They were by far the commonest butterfly on the cliffs and, at times, I almost trod on them as they settled on the path by my feet. ​

Just past South Foreland lighthouse another wildflower-rich meadow held another gem in the form of the also-scarce Adonis Blue butterfly. Unlike the faded-looking Chalk Hill Blue the Adonis Blue jumps out at you with a stunning deep, rich blue.

My photo doesn't quite capture the intensity of the blue and this is a battle-worn individual having lost a chunk from its left wing - perhaps from a bird.  The little black marks that cross the white wing-border separate this species from other blues and confirm it as an Adonis Blue.  Both the Chalk Hill and Adonis Blues are butterflies that I am very unlikely to encounter on my rambles at home so seeing them in abundance was very special.

Of course, being August and being on a headland just across from France meant that my 'bird antennae' were also up.  However, I didn't encounter too much save a lone Wheatear on passage. There also seemed to be a steady passage of birds out to sea but without a scope I could only identify a few Gannets and Mediterranean Gulls by way of interest.  A dark bird headed west looked tantalisingly like a Brown Booby but at such distance it had to be relegated to the 'in your dreams' category of 'ones that go away'!

Aside from the fact that this walk is book-ended by two National Trust cafés, this short stretch of coastline is well worth a visit.  The area has precedence for good birds and if you want inspiration for a visit check out - Perdix Birding - a blog by local birder Jamie Partridge.

I hate to say it, but I had the first ‘whiff’ of autumn today.  Today is 23rd June!!
I’m not sure exactly what it was.  Maybe…
 
…the movement of small flocks of tits through the apple trees in the garden
      …the calls of young Goldcrests on the move
          …the news that a returning male Redstart was found this morning on the Herts border
             …a slight damp in the air, despite the warmth
 
Of course, summer is still to come…at least I really hope it is…but certain sights and sounds trigger seasonal feelings, and they are not altogether inaccurate.  After all, the return passage of waders is underway with Green Sandpipers reappearing at the local gravel pits along with a lone Redshank.  Lapwing numbers are increasing although new broods of chicks are still appearing.  Gull numbers are growing and today the first juvenile Black-headed Gull joined the growing numbers of adults at the local pits.
 
And yet our butterflies are hardly out yet and the Ragwort not quite in bloom.  Summer still has plenty to bring forth and yet, in the background, the quiet recession back to winter has begun!  I love it and for me there is no sadness, only anticipation.  Change brings the unexpected and while it would on occasion feel good to be in a forever-summer, the long days would grow dull and I don’t mean meteorologically!

Small & Large Skipper Butterflies - signs that summer still has plenty to give!

This Thursday I went on a long walk with a friend in hot sunshine through the Hertfordshire countryside.  The birdlife was by and large subdued in the heat - typical of this time of year - but the usual Red Kites and Buzzards were in evidence along with the occasional song of Blackcaps and Whitethroats.

Our walk finished in a quiet lane in the village of Benington and as we entered the lane we were immediately greeted with the sharp tsick! calls of Spotted Flycatchers.  I knew the call immediately as it was the summer soundtrack of my childhood garden in St Albans when these birds used to nest in our porch.  Though they have not nested in the garden since the early 1990s there is still faint traces of their droppings on the stonework of the porch but the nest material has long gone.

Spotted Flycatchers have sadly been in sharp decline with little understanding of how we might arrest this decline.  The plummeting numbers of insects must surely play its part but it seems other factors abroad and perhaps beyond our control may also be at work.  Encounters with these birds are therefore a mix of nostalgia, joy and sadness at their demise.

Watching the flycatchers in Benington on Thursday they give you no hint at their troubles but are as they were all those years ago in my garden.  I have always loved how such a drab, brown little bird can exude such presence: perched up prominently on a jutting twig, swooping and darting to catch flies and issuing their contact calls all the while.  Hopefully their family-raising will be successful and they will return for many years to come.