We had to wait until the last day of the month for the biggest surprise, when a great white egret (above) visited. The bird was first seen approaching distantly from the southeast, before having a bit of a look around the lagoons and departing west. Remarkably, records show that the previous visit from this species was exactly a year earlier on August 31^st 2021!

A pair of great crested grebes (above) had hatched three young at the end of July although they stayed well hidden at the nest for a while. Early in August they started to venture out onto the open water, and although one chick sadly didn’t make it, by the end of the month we had two well-grown youngsters.

The kingfisher (below) which started being seen regularly in mid-July continued to show well throughout August, being most frequently seen around the water inlet.

Duck numbers always build up in autumn, but it isn’t always the same species which builds up. After 2021 was the year of the shoveler, 2022 looks like being a pochard year, with around eighty present by the end of the month. Shoveler numbers so far this year reached about twenty, with the highest count of teal being three. Four wigeon arrived on the 27^th and were seen on and off for the rest of the month.

The high water levels through August meant the chances of getting any passage migrant wading birds weren’t great, and we just had a few sightings of common sandpiper around mid-month. There has been some evidence in the last few years in London that hobby is starting to become more of an urban bird, and we had several sightings in august including a bird which landed in a tree along the woodland trail. A buzzard was seen overhead on the 30^th.

We have lots of good habitat for warblers here, as well as the reed-bed there are plenty of bushes full of both berries and insects. Perhaps the best warbler hot-spot is the hedge which borders the private garden on the south side of the boardwalk. Warblers seen in august included both lesser whitethroat and common whitethroat (above), sedge warbler and garden warbler, and possibly more willow warblers than any previous autumn.

We had a couple of sightings of pied flycatcher towards the end of the month, and with spotted flycatcher (above) being more plentiful as usual. Another surprise was a nuthatch seen on the 27^th. This species is strangely scarce here considering that several pairs breed in nearby Finsbury Park.

The total number of bird species seen here in august 2022 was 70, exactly equalling the average from the previous six Augusts.