The tardy few

Please spare a thought for those summer migrants that just cannot make up their their minds whether to leave our shores or not, even though they really should do. Whether it's down to laziness, incompetence or a lack of physical ability, a rough time awaits them if they leave it too late, or try to winter. Here is a list of my current, latest ever dates. I've even put the place of observation alongside them... you lucky people.

Garganey - wintering (Holmethorpe SP, Surrey 2011-12)
Honey Buzzard - 10 October 1981 (Dungeness, Kent)
Osprey - 4 December 1979 (Gatton Park, Surrey)
Hobby - 31 October 1988 (Dungeness, Kent)
Quail - 31 October 1987 (Dungeness, Kent)
Little Ringed Plover - 24 September 1983 (Pagham Harbour, West Sussex)
Common Sandpiper - wintering (several places)
Sandwich Tern - 7 November 2015 (Dungeness, Kent)
Common Tern - 6 November 2015 (Dungeness, Kent)
Arctic Tern - 30 October 1988 (Dungeness, Kent)
Little Tern - 6 October 1985 (Dungeness, Kent)
Black Tern - 28 October 1984 (Dungeness, Kent)
Turtle Dove - 30 October 1982 (Dungeness, Kent)
Cuckoo - 16 September 1984 (Beddington SF, Surrey)
Nightjar - 31 August 1996 (Thursday Common, Surrey)
Swift - 28 November 1997 (Sutton, Surrey)
Sand Martin - 4 November 1978 (Dungeness, Kent)
Swallow - 16 November 1986 (Dungeness, Kent)
House Martin - 26 November 1977 (Pagham Harbour, West Sussex)
Tree Pipit - 26 October 2015 (Dungeness, Kent)
Yellow Wagtail - 8 December 1984 (Beddington SF, Surrey)
Nightingale - 31 August 1985 (Dungeness, Kent)
Common Redstart - 31 October 1987 (Dungeness, Kent)
Whinchat - 31 October 1976 (Beddington SF, Surrey)
Wheatear - 9 November 1980 (Dungeness, Kent)
Ring Ouzel - wintering (New Forest 1983-84)
Grasshopper Warbler - 24 September 1989 (Dungeness, Kent)
Sedge Warbler - 10 October 1976 (Beddington SF, Surrey)
Reed Warbler - 31 October 1976 (Beddington SF, Surrey)
Lesser Whitethroat - 29 October 1983 (Dungeness, Kent)
Common Whitethroat - 4 November 2015 (Dungeness, Kent)
Garden Warbler - 3 November 1979 (Dungeness, Kent)
Wood Warbler - 14 October 1979 (St. Mary's, Isles of Scilly)
Willow Warbler - 29 October 1980 and 1984 (both Dungeness, Kent)
Spotted Flycatcher - 29 October 1984 (Dungeness, Kent)
Pied Flycatcher - 30 October 1987 (Dungeness, Kent)

So there you go, if you keep notes then you to can produce meaningless lists, just like this!

Comments

Gibster said…
My first British Quail was in February, apparently they used to regularly overwinter (especially in Ireland) many years ago. Who knew?
20 November 2015 at 20:43
Simon Douglas Thompson said…
They'll be regretting it tonight, the stay-behinds
20 November 2015 at 21:09
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Goldfinches and Lavender

Image
We have three medium-sized Lavender bushes in our back garden. Throughout the summer the flowers (which last for several months) are a magnet for insects and give off a most restful aroma. As tempting as it is to cut the dead stems in the autumn, we always leave them, as we know that during the late winter we will get visitors to feed on the seed heads... This video was taken from the kitchen window this morning. We will normally see one or two birds over a few days, but have had up to 14 at once. We never tire of watching them. Lavender is a wonderful plant to have in the garden, with year round natural history benefits. So what are you waiting for? They are readily available at a garden centre close to you right now! There is an historic association with Lavender in this part of northern Surrey and south London. Lavender fields have been harvested for many years, with one particular field close to Woodmansterne being very popular with day trippers. A significant proportion o...
Read more

Welcome back!

Image
In November 2005 I purchased a pair of Swarovski 10x42 EL binoculars from The London Camera Exchange shop in Guildford, for the then princely sum of £899. These bins have served me well, with almost daily use in all types of weather, testing their durability to the maximum - salt water spray, deluges of rain, 38C temperatures, dust, dirt, slight knocks... and apart from the armour coating that had started to bubble and come away from the body, nothing to be alarmed about. Then, in the summer of 2022, I noticed that I had a problem when close focusing - the outer focusing wheel would lose grip and it would take me an age to regain a middle-ground distance of focus - plus, over the next few weeks this outer focusing wheel became loose. I resorted to the use of tape to keep it all in place, but realised that I had to do something about it in the long run. For a while I did consider buying a new pair - after all, they were then 17-years old - but they were still optically superb. It seemed...
Read more

A special day

In birding, timing can mean the difference between an average day in the field and that of a spectacular one. Good timing can be helped by reading the weather conditions correctly, or understanding local conditions but it is more often down to pure luck. In this case, I just got lucky... I had not visited Dungeness since March 2022, quite a gap for me. It was high time that I once more trod the shingle and my timing of a visit was down to several factors, mostly a personal liking for mid-late autumn but also because I needed to be at home until September 20th and could not make the journey south until then. I also chose to stay at the bird observatory for a few days rather than make it a day trip. All this conveniently found me stepping outside the observatory's back door in the breaking dawn of Sunday 22nd September, quickly making my way to the fishing boats, an area I prefer to stand to best appreciate any visible bird migration, an aspect of birding that I find exhilarating.  A...
Read more