Reporting Your Sightings

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The main month for autumn migration at Northward Hill, with a steady stream of migrants passing through (and over) the reserve. The woodland has many roving flocks, mainly made up of blue, great & long-tailed tits, but these may include warblers, the occasional woodpecker and newly arrived goldcrests towards the end of the month. The scrubby areas can be alive with migrant warblers like whitethroat & lesser whitethroat, blackcap, chiffchaff & reed and willow warblers. Fence-lines are good places to look for whinchats and wheatears. Less regular migrants include pied and spotted flycatcher & redstart. Overhead swallows and house martins are going south, along with yellow wagtails. There are also regular fly-over grey wagtails at this time of year. Occasionally a tree pipit will be recorded. Other fly-overs include turtle dove, redpoll and siskin.
Late passage waders like green sandpiper and ruff are still about, with little stint and curlew sandpiper a possibility. Wintering waders - black-tailed godwit, golden plover and lapwing are more regular.
Easterly winds bring influxes of wintering ducks like wigeon, teal and pintail. Late garganey is always a possibility.
Strong north-westerly winds often result in seabirds flying into the Thames estuary and Shorne & Higham Bight are ideally placed (at the point where the river narrows) to observe them. Recent autumns have seen storm and Leach's petrels, sooty shearwater and four species of skua recorded.
Despite the numbers of birds recorded annually, Northward Hill has a poor record for turning up scarce birds in September. Osprey has occured occasionally, there were several honey buzzards in 2000 and the first reserve record of pectoral sandpiper in 2004.

29th: 1 tawny owl (N. Hill)

28th: 360 teal, 69 wigeon, 21 shoveler, 6 pintail, 110 lapwing, 6 black-tailed godwit, 4 snipe, 1 greenshank (N. Hill)

27th: 5 buzzard, 3 marsh harrier, 1 peregrine, 8 snipe, 3 black-tailed godwit, 3 siskin (N. Hill); 2 green sandpiper, 40 snipe, 1F sparrowhawk, 4 kestrel, 2 yellow wagtail, 3 chiffchaff, 1 goldcrest (Shorne)

26th: 1j red-necked phalarope (1st reserve record), 1 osprey, 1 buzzard, 1 sparrowhawk, 4+ hobby, 350+ teal, 5 black-tailed godwit, 2 snipe, 1 redwing, 1 reed warbler, blackcap, chiffchaff, goldcrest (N. Hill)

25th: 1 common buzzard, 1M & 1F marsh harrier, 2 hobby, 1F sparrowhawk, 5+ kestrel, 36 swallow E (N. Hill)

24th: 1 grey wagtail, 1 Cetti's warbler, 1 marsh harrier (N. Hill)

22nd: 479 teal, 16 shoveler, 7 wigeon, 7 pintail, 52 black-tailed godwit, 60 lapwing, 1 snipe, 1 greenshank (N. Hill)

21st: 6 common buzzard W, 2 marsh harrier, 2+ hobby, 1 sparrowhawk, 6+ kestrel, 2 snipe, 1 kingfisher, 45 stock dove, 10+ blackcap, 10+ chiffchaff, 6 siskin W (N. Hill)

20th: 1 osprey S, 2 marsh harrier, 6 snipe (N. Hill)

19th: 2 marsh harrier, 1 hobby, 1 peregrine (N. Hill); 410 redshank, 83 black-tailed godwit, 26 grey plover, 60 oystercatcher, 20 turnstone, 3 spotted redshank, 2 ringed plover, 37 wigeon, 24 mallard, 7 teal, 4 shoveler, 1 pintail (Motney Hill)

15th: 1 green sandpiper, 1 tawny owl, 5 siskin W (N. Hill)

13th: 1 red kite (N. Hill per M. Puxley)

11th: 1 greenshank, small numbers of swallow S (N. Hill)

10th: 1 common buzzard, 3 marsh harrier, 1 barn owl, 1 Harris' hawk, 1 green sandpiper, 1 common sandpiper, 1 snipe, 250+ swallow pre-roost (+ 50 S), 1 yellow wagtail S, whitethroat, blackcap, willow warbler, chiffchaff (N. Hill)

8th: 1M + 1j marsh harrier, 2 hobby, 11+ kestrel, 2 green sandpiper, 1 common sandpiper, 3 greenshank, 50+ swallow S, 10+ house martin S (N. Hill)

7th: 1 honey buzzard SE, 2 hobby, 1 marsh harrier, 3 green sandpiper, 1 common sandpiper, 1 black-tailed godwit, 400+ teal, swallow, 10+ house martin, 1 yellow wagtail (N. Hill), 2 wheatear, 2 stonechat, 7 shoveler, 1M sparrowhawk, 30+ swallow W (Shorne)

6th: 1 marsh harrier, 2 green sandpiper, 1 common sandpiper

5th: 1+ marsh harrier, 1M sparrowhawk, 300+ teal, 11 black-tailed godwit, 8 greenshank, 2 green sandpiper, 1 common sandpiper, 1 wheatear, 30+ swallow (N. Hill); 1 arctic skua, 10 common tern, 145 curlew, 5 black-tailed godwit (Egypt Bay)

3rd: 1M & 1j marsh harrier, 4 green sandpiper, 1 common sandpiper, 2 black-tailed godwit, 1 wheatear, 2 yellow wagtail (N. Hill)

2nd: 3 green sandpiper, 1 common sandpiper, 8 house martin S, 15 sand martin S, 1 hobby (N. Hill)

1st: 340 teal, 14 wigeon, 6 shoveler, 4 pintail, 31 black-tailed godwit, 3 green sandpiper, 1 common sandpiper, 2 marsh harrier, 1 hobby, 5 sand martin W, 2 whinchat (N. Hill)