Friday 10th July

A busy day at work, so no butterflies or hirundines today. Back home and refreshed by a beer I wandered around the garden contemplating what a lot of work needed to be done! A gull call made me look up, adult Med Gull flapping overhead heading NW - well that was nice, and unexpected! They seem to be everywhere in NW Kent at the moment, breeding like buggery on those unhabitated islands in the Medway/Thames estuary no doubt. Watching the gull fly away the Starlings and Collared Doves on the chimneys and TV aerials caught my eye, this how birding used to be in surburban Birmingham! No Med Gulls up there or Hawfinches on the tiles at Christmas! Then I heard a thin, high-pitched 'tsee' - occasionally Pied Wagtails run the ridge tiles, but this was different. Scanning the roof I was delighted, no, well-chuffed to see the head and thin bill of a Spotted Flycatcher poking over the roof (just right of the chimney - blends in well eh!).

I'd been searching out one of these fantastic little birds for the last 2 months and drew a blank at all the usual haunts. This bird had come to me, an added bonus to my 'ridge tile' and 'garden' list (though still savouring the pair of Black Redstart that head my 'work ridge tile' list!). It performed wonderfully, sallying from roof to branch to fence to runner bean pole over and over again. Overhead a group Swifts and House Martins efficiently cleaned up what the flycatcher had missed.