Out for a walk today the first hints of autumn are visible with a few trees showing hints of gold among the green. It has been a poor year for both top fruit and berries with no quinces setting on my trees and no crabb apples in the lane while blackberries have been fewer and smaller than usual. I have put out a fat block, much earlier than usual but it has only been there a couple of days, not long enough to see any reaction yet.
While walking a buzzard announced itself with a loud mew before appearing over the ridge right in front of us. We were given the opportunity to compare calls a few minutes later when an equally vocal kite came into view.
The jackdaws were noisy and seemed to be flying high very much after the manner of martins or switfts. There were also smaller birds, too small to make out even with binoculars but with flight patterns similar to martins.
The garden has seemed very quiet with hardly any birds seen but I hadn't been explicitly looking. I have just started putting a little food out in the front and in 24 hours have seen Robin, Great and Blue Tits and Magpies landing in my tiny front garden. Yesterday I heard a song that was unusual to me which the Merlin app identified as a Blackcap. Unfortunately for me the bird was ensconsed in the middle of my Forsythia which is still in full leaf and I couldn't get a sighting. This afternoon I saw Robins in the garden and corvids overhead. I set Merlin running while I swept fallen leaves from the front path. The app identified Robin, Rook, Wren, Jackdaw, Greenfinch and Blackbird. I also heard Parakeets but not while the app was running.
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