Hampstead Heath October 2020

On the 1st of October I did a nice early watch from Parliament hill but only managed a few large flocks of House Martin (130 in total) and 3 Linnet.

On the 2nd I made some kind of insane attempt to watch from Parliament Hill in the pouring rain under some kind of delusion that I might see something good. I didn't. One lost Red Kite was a nice surprise but didn't make up for the soaking.

The next day I avoided watching from Parliament hill early (of course now the Gannets and Kittiwakes start turning up). I went out at around 10am when the rain eased a bit to look for Yellow Browed Warbler. No luck of course but I did manage my first Greylag Goose since the Spring resting on the ponds and another fly over Lesser Redpoll. The real surprise came when I was at home trying to do some work when I received a message from another local birder asking me to ID something. Before I tapped on the video I was expecting to see a distant video of a single little bird flitting around or calling so I was shocked to see an enormous flock of Siskin in the video erupting from the trees! It was more than I'd ever heard of on the Heath so I gave up working and jogged over to have a look. On arrival the sight was amazing. Huge numbers of finches feeding in the birch trees above us and frequently bursting into incredible flights. There was a fair few Lesser Redpoll in among the Siskin too which gave some stunning views. I spent the next hour just watching the spectacle; there were so many feeding in the tree you could hear them rustling like the breeze and a steady drift debris from the trees fell like snow from the tree. My final count was 200! (185 imaged + estimations of whatever wasn't in the photo). It was a truly incredible spectacle to see in 21st Century London!

6th October: 25 Swallow, 20 House Martin, 90 Meadow Pipit and a few other common migrants from Parliament hill

7 October: After a relatively slow watch we were surprised to see a group of 10 Crossbill "chip-chipping" their way West over the hill. A nice few 30 Swallow and a single Sand Martin were nice too!

8 October: 1 Redpoll and 1 Redwing over Parliament hill

10 October: A decent watch from dawn, 145 Chaffinch, 70 Meadow Pipit etc

11 October: Superb morning with the first hundreds of Redwings passing through as well as a pair of incredibly high Snipe heading North! I also had a probable Yellowhammer heard and there was a single Stonechat by the ponds.

12 October: My first ever Hawfinch flew North over Parliament hill before school as well as 350+ Redwing!

13 October: A few hundred Redwing and plenty of common finches

14 October: Brilliant morning! 3 Brambling flew over (my first ever) and I heard my first Skylark for the Heath. On top of that I had well over 300 Redwing and a possible Ring Ouzel.

15 October: 4 Brambling, Skylark, 240 Redwing etc over Parliament Hill

16 October: Probably the best day of the month: 3 Brambling, Skylark, 180 Redwing, 140 Chaffinch in the morning and a Marsh Harrier over in the afternoon! As a final bonus I had at least 30 Redpoll in Kenwood!

17 October: 200+ Chaffinch, Little Egret, Skylark, 100 Redwing, 60 Fieldfare and some other nice birds from Parliament hill.

18 October; A bit of an odd watch from the hill. We spent most of the morning watching a distant line of blue sky slowly drag it's way towards us in the hope there might be a few nice birds moving through it. Then as if by magic, when the gap in the clouds arrived, Pete called out to us and I looked up to see what looked like a large Sandpiper frantically rocketing shooting south! I desperately tried to get a picture and despite the focus doing its best to try and take a photo of the sky I managed a single photo! Then someone exclaimed "oh no it's actually a falcon". Of course it wasn't but I still stupidly put my camera down to check. Once it disappeared it Pete told me it was a Plover sp but he didn't know which. Luckily my photo showed it to have clear underwings to confirm it as Golden Plover! Probably the best bird of October! Other than that we also had 2 Collared Dove, 2 Skylark and a hundred or so Chaffinch.

The rest of the month had very poor weather and the winds were blowing the wrong way so I had very little and towards the end of the month took a break from watching from Parliament hill super early. The only good days were the 22nd which produced 3 Crossbill and  the 24th which gave us 1600+ Woodpigeon (1000 from roost and 600 Migrating)

In all a good month with a slightly disappointing end. Hopefully when the winds switch I might get something good in early November though!