The second brood of house martins from the nest under our eaves fledged in early September and any remaining house martins around the village disappeared soon after. Apart from one brief sighting of a hobby near Badby Woods, the only other evidence of migrant birds for me, by the middle of September, was the song and call of the chiffchaff. We even had a brief visit from one to our back garden, briefly using a feeder as a perch and then moving on.

Our garden feeders have been busy with blue, coal and great tits along with regular robin and dunnock but very little else. There is also plenty of evidence of families of long-tailed tits around the village with their characteristic shrill three note calls ringing out.

RP