Oh bugger! A long time since the last post again, just way too much going on. So, in summary, briefly:

On Sunday 11th a failed bid at Ring Ouzel at Latchmoor Bottom in the morning, but a male Hen Harrier and my first Redwings of the autumn (103 in all). Then watched my son get a bronze in a fencing comp before a very satisfying first match of the indoor cricket season, which saw me captain the third team to victory against the second team (smug doesn’t come close). All of which left me with no energy and little time (and little inclination I’m ashamed to say) to go for the Long-billed Dowitcher which showed up at Blashford in the afternoon. Not a county tick, seen hundreds before and I’ve sort of abandoned the year list, so it was lazy time.

Tanners Lane on 14th October produced an Osprey, a Merlin and a singing Woodlark.

And then a dismal vis mig at Barton on 16th was followed by a much better one on 17th, with pride of place going to 821 Goldfinches east, with smaller numbers including 86 Pied Wagtails, 55 Meadow Pipits, 23 Siskins, 47 Jackdaws, 33 Greenfinches and 6 Lesser Redpolls. Later than day singles of Hobby and Merlin and 2 Crossbills were seen over Sway (the later species has featured a few times in recent days).

Which is pretty much up to date, and now my focus is very much on Kenya, for which I depart in 2 days time. It’s very hard to concentrate on much else knowing that I’ll be watching White-browed Sparrow-Weaver, White-crowned Shrike and the like by the weekend.

As Steve P said yesterday my main priority at the moment is getting in heaps of work pre-Kenya, but they do say every man has his price and it seems mine is a cloudy day with a force 3 easterly!

And boy was I glad I dumped the work in favour of what turned out to be probably the best vis mig session Barton has produced for me. I rather think Steve was pleased he went for it again, I may just have sown a vis mig seed.

Top rarity billing went to 2 Tree Sparrows that headed east at 0809: after only having seen two in the county before I’ve now had six in Hants this autumn. I rather suspect that it may be overlooked at this time of year. Had today’s two been 50 yards or more further away they probably would have slipped by unnoticed amongst the hordes of finches. Star finches in terms of rarity were the 17 Crossbills that went east in a single flock, but the undoubted stars of the day were Linnet and Goldfinch with awesome counts of 2383 and 1673 going east (everything was today) respectively. The latter is my second highest count (just 46 short of the record) and I think about the fifth highest in Hants, but the Linnet count was about three times my previous best and, I strongly suspect, by far the highest count ever in the county. The supporting vismig cast were as follows: 1700 House Martins ( a very good October count), 670 Swallows, 198 Meadow Pipits, 121 Siskins, 77 Chaffinches, 74 Greenfinches, 46 Pied Wagtails and 9 Reed Buntings.

Two Wheatears, 5 Stonechats, 7 Mistle Thrushes and 2 Grey Wagtails were on the ground, and a Shag and a Gannet were offshore, but I didn’t cover a great deal of ground to look for grounded birds and my attention wasn’t really on the sea.

The forecast is for a return to westerlies, so I can thankfully get back to earning some much needed readies, but this morning’s session is not one I’ll forget in a hurry!

After a quiet few days (did manage one more very uneventful Barton session since the last entry) this morning saw me down at Milford Shelter with a few others with strong southwesterlies having been forecast. After a couple of hours of mostly quiet seawatching in less-strong-than-hoped-for winds, having seen little more than a Kittiwake and 5 Shags decided my time would be better spent sorting out some pre-Kenya essentials.

I had barely got to the bank however when I got a message informing me of a Sooty Shearwater that had been seen landing on the see off Milford. So I drove straight back down there of course. Needless to say it wasn’t seen again. Spent another couple of hours there though, and was rewarded with 2 Arctic Skuas, 1 Bonxie, 2 Red-throated Divers, heaps of very close Gannets, a Guillemot and several Common Scoters, so I was more than satisfied when the lure of lunch proved too great.

It’s probably best not to repeat what I said when I discovered that less than an hour after I’d left for the second time I’d missed close fly-pasts by a Long-tailed Skua and a Balearic Shearwater, as well as Manxies and much more. So that’s two year ticks I’ve managed to miss today, and with only myself to blame I suppose.

The afternoon was spent buying some currency and an International Driving Permit, so I’m now pretty much ready to roll with departure due in just 17 days’ time. It will be very nice to get back to Africa.

Anyone who wants to pay me to go there 3 or 4 times a year shouldn’t feel shy about asking. I really won’t mind