The Patch - 22/08/11

My first check of the patch for a while as I hope to find a good migrant here some time during the open so I will be visiting a lot more in the next couple of months. In the crematorium a pair of Sparrowhawks circled overhead and a male Kestrel hunted over the neighbouring fields. On the pond the 2 White Cheeked Pintails were still in residence along with 48 Mallard, 2 Coot (including the colour ringed bird) and a family part of 4 Canada Geese. From here I went to Bispham Marsh which was surprisingly quite however the first few ducks are starting to arrive back and I had 2 each of Shoveler and Teal on the south half, the only migrant passerine was a Whitehtorat in the scrub to the south of here. Although the birds weren't mind blowing the dragonflies certainly made up for it with a male Emperor on the crem pond, a male Common Darter in the scrub and at least 7 Migrant Hawkers which seemed to be everywhere.