Garden Walk

After being woken up by the school fields grass cutter at 7:00 this morning I decided to get up earlier and have a walk around the estate.

I officially finished my first year at Teesside University last week and term starts again on 4th October so I will try to have a walk around the patch most day, well I've got to do something for the next 5 months :)

I started at the Brockwell scrubland which was alive with song. 4 Chiffchaff, 3 Whitethroat, 2 Blackcap, a distant Grasshopper Warbler and a displaying Skylark were all within a few hundred yards of each other.
This morning was also the first time I remember being out and feeling hot in the sun this year.

I then checked the roundabout and other bushes around Nelson Hill which again held Chiffchaff and Blackcap. It was more of the same at the trees around the outskirts of the industrial estate.

Finally I checked the West Hartford roundabout where a pair of Garden Warblers - Patch Tick, were in full song out in the open. As soon as I got close they dived further into cover but I could still hear them singing.

98 - Garden Warbler

Patch Tick

On my way home yesterday I past through the Scrubland behind the Brockwell as I regularly do.
This is an excellent place to find birds in an urban area and in the past I have seen both Reed and Lapland Buntings here.
I wasn't looking for birds yesterday as it was about to rain but on my way out of the scrub two birds flew right out in front of me and landed on a branch a few metres away. They stayed on the branch for for about 10 seconds before a whitethroat chased them away.
It took me a few seconds to click but then I realised that they were Garden Warblers a bird I have not seen in Cramlington before and my 8th patch tick of the year.