My original plan for today was to make another trip to the New Forest but after a rather busy week, and a weather forecast which kept on changing I decided to stay local. A report from Farmoor Reservoir yesterday of a black redstart also sounded a good alternative option.
I've seen this species a couple times previously at this location, and knew exactly where to look. Black redstarts favour old buildings and roof tops and at the end of the Farmoor Causeway there is a rather derelect looking Thames Water building where I expected to find it. Almost as soon as I cast my eye on the roof, I could make out a silhouette of a bird, it had to be the black redstart..and it was! That was easy! It was fairly distant but the bright orangey-red underside of its tail was clear to see as it hopped around looking for insects. it didn't get any closer so after a while I left and took a path down to the river where I walked along for a while. There was nothing particularly of note, though I did hear my first singing blackcap.
Returning to the causeway I stopped again by the old buildings and quickly re-found the black redstart. Surprisingly no one else had stopped to look. Occasionally it would dip down behind the roof edge but after a few minutes would reappear. It also made short flight to different parts of the roof and walls and once, when harrassed by a robin, it flew down to the ground and then suddenly to the hedge beside me, although at the other side. I just couldn't get my camera to focus on the small part of the bird I could see between the twigs but all of a sudden there was a fluttering of red ( both robin and black redstart) and it came round to the front. It remained there for only a few seconds so I hastily took a shot on my camera but it was far from good as a leaf partially obscured its head.
After a satisfying morning I headed back to the car and home, one more tick in my book.
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