The Sand Martin passage seemed to dry up towards the end of September, my last record being about 5 birds on 26th. A Green Sand is/was lingering and has been reported on several dates recently, though is not always on this pit - I last saw it on the back of the base of the spit on Oct 5th, so it may well still be about. Wigeon numbers have nudged there way up to a peak so far of 8 birds, also on the 5th. During most of my recent visits, Mipits and Siskins have been going over in small numbers and in the last few days, a few Skylarks as well. Snipe, usually 3 birds, are often quite obvious on the west bank. 2 Coal Tit sightings recently, 1 by the railway near the gate and the other by the cottages - not usually a bird seen very often here. Chiffchaffs have been very obvious and seem to be everywhere, but the only other warblers seen were 2 Blackcaps, a male and female, in the railway hedge on the 5th. An adult Great Black-backed Gull is the first returning bird of the season and is often present - I first saw it on Oct 2nd. There is also a regular adult Yellow-legged Gull that is also often present - a record shot in drizzle from this morning:
I decided to do the gull roost on Saturday 6th, being a nice well lit evening. Highlight was a Caspian Gull moulting into 2nd winter. It looked to be the same 1st summer bird that I'd seen in mid August, as the plumage was very similar, though a few more scaps and coverts had been moulted. The bill was also identical apart from having acquired an obvious pale ivory tip - the base being pale pinkish merging into a black outer half. About 4-5 Common Gulls were present and a few birds have been around for a while now - I've seen adults, juvs, 1st and 2nd winters. A Barnacle Goose was also present - my first of the year here, though as always, of suspect origin.
A colour ringed adult Herring Gull was seen on 5th, red/orange on its left leg with black XD3T - a bird from the North Thames Gull Group. Details are here:
http://www.ntgg.org.uk/cgi-bin/map.cgi?p=recmap&t=r&r=GC84319
Away from the pit, a Wheatear was at Pump Lane on Oct 1st, near the top vine field:
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