Autumn passage begins

I made two visits to the patch this weekend, the first since June 19th, late summer can have a feeling of anticlimax about it but always with the knowledge that the first migrants of the autumn are not too far away. On the basin the female Pintail has returned along with an eclipse drake Teal on Saturday and a pair on Sunday. A herd of five adult Mute Swans were on Bow Creek on Saturday at least two new broods of Mallard were evident; Tufted Duck appears not to have bred this year but I made a high July count of 21 on the basin on Sunday. An adult Little Ringed Plover was at the basin and a juvenile was feeding at Bow Creek on Saturday, hard to say if it was locally bred or a migrant, and on Sunday a pair were display flighting over the Pura Foods peninsula. On Sunday I found the first proper migrant of the autumn, a Common Sandpiper in the high tide roost at Bow Creek, the only other wader species was an Oystercatcher, heard only, moving down the Thames on Sunday. Both pairs of Common Terns seem to have aborted their breeding attempts at the basin, I had one bird on Saturday and Sunday but no sign of any juveniles which should have been very evident by now. A pair of Sand Martins were still feeding young at the original nest site in the dock wall and four species of warbler were still singing; Reed Warbler, at least four throughout the site with several juveniles giving their harsh Jay-like begging calls as they crashed through the reedbeds, making an awful lot of racket for such a small bird; Blackcap, at least two, one each at the basin and Ecology Park; Lesser Whitethroat, one still singing from the last meander of Bow Creek; Common Whitethroat, one singing in the Ecology Park and a separate family party there containing at least two juveniles, lots of scolding from their irate parents. In the ecology park the embankments either side of the Docklands Light Railway are awash with seeding flowers and weeds, at least two family parties of Goldfinches and three Linnets were taking advantage of this abundance and if Lea Valley Regional Park don't employ their usual tactic of blanket mowing everything in sight it looks good for an August Whinchat.