wheatears on hampstead heath

[mor]

i'm new to this site which i only found when trying to work out what all the people with big binoculars and scopes were doing on the heath a week ago - looking at the alpine swift i found out.

anyway, 2 days ago (18th april) on my regular morning stroll through the heath i saw 2 male wheatears, and then in the afternoon i went back for another look and saw 2 males and a female too. is this unusual? i've only lived near the heath for 6 months and was very glad to see such pretty birds hanging around.

i haven't seen them since and wondered if they were likely to be passing through or if i can look forward to seeing them some more...

Mor.

[dbradnum]

Hi there Mor, and welcome to BirdForum! I popped over to see the Alpine Swift last weekend - fantastic bird!

I don't know the site particularly well, but I'd imagine that Wheatear is a noteworthy, but still reasonably regular migrant visitor to the heath in spring and autumn - i.e. at the right time of year, there's often a handful about. They will unfortunately just be passing through, though some might linger for a day or two.

Even if the birds you saw have moved on, it's well worth keeping your eyes open at this time of year - further Wheatears, and other migrants like Whinchat, could well be about in the next couple of weeks.

[mor]

thanks,

i'll keep my eyes open to see what else passes through...

mor.

[John o'Sullivan]

I think that used (at least) to be Bill Oddies patch . He often wrote about it in Birdwatching Magazine. I can remember a tale about a little bittern, also at other times Red Kite and Marsh Harrier. Good luck, John O'