Crowborough 09/06/2018

A walk around Crowborough this morning gave all the usual suspects, including good numbers of Starlings, over half of which seemed to be juveniles. On one house's roof I saw a Pied Wagtail, possibly of the race alba, White Wagtail, with very grey plumage on the mantle, rump, and wings. The Rose-coloured Starling influx does not seem to have hit Crowborough yet, if it does, but this year seems to be the best chance of seeing one locally. I did check all the Starlings I saw, but alas to no avail. Other than these, there are now good numbers of Swifts screaming all over the town, despite very low numbers in May. This is apparently due to storms over France and Spain which held the birds up. Yesterday, I saw what looked very much like a Spotted Flycatcher in my garden. The bird itself was a silhouette, but the behaviour was convincing. It was sitting on the top of one of my trees, and flycatching. The bird was silent, but there were no pronounced colours. The Jackdaw pictured below was one of many on the rooftops around town.