Whinchat on Migration

It was a really nice Autumn day today, so I popped up onto Greenham Common in search of the Yellow Wagtails which were reported on Berks Birds yesterday.

Although there were no signs of the Wagtails, I was delighted to spot a pair of Whinchats feeding in small gorse bushes, just on the western edge of the runway.

Whinchats are migrating back to Africa and are passing through Berkshire from their breeding ground in northern and western England.

Male Redstart on Greenham Common (Sep 2015)

After spending over a frustrating hour and a half today, looking in vain for Wheatears, I finally got lucky and spotted this beautiful male Redstart. It was showing really well, flying down, catching insects, then returning to the same fence post where it sat for quite some time.

Redstarts are beautiful birds and I feel privileged to see one, on its Autumn migration back to Africa, from the breeding areas in Wales and the west country.

The bird was sat right on a post of the perimeter fence surrounding the bird ringing area on the western side of Greenham Common.

The pictures (left) were taken with a Canon 7D Mark II, with a Canon 300mm F2.8 IS II lens and a 1.4x extender - making 420mm focal length. This combo takes great pictures, although I probably would have done slightly better with the 2x extender, as the bird was about 80 feet away.