Birding Reports

Early autumn 2026 – a remarkable passage?

One of the most anticipated times of the year for inland ‘patch’ birders is the early autumn migration of passerines heading south across the UK on route to their wintering grounds in the Mediterranean or Africa. Whilst the East coast will always record the largest numbers and most variety of these species, some birds will inevitably filter through to the West and join other more broad fronted migrants in gracing inland sites. Migration is a more leisurely affair at this time of year and any site with suitable habitat and plenty of food may seen migrant passerines lingering much longer than their Northbound counterparts in Spring.

Nottingham Road Cemetery is the main burial ground in Derby city and is an important urban green space covering an area of 72 acres made up largely of grassland, scrub, open ‘parkland’ style planting of trees/shrubs and a small area of denser woodland. Bordered by a large housing estate on three sides and a busy main road and industrial estate on the other it is easy to speculate that the cemetery might look like a welcome green ‘island’ to a migrating songbird. A site with plenty of ‘potential’, autumn passage can often produce Spotted Flycatcher, a variety of warbler and the occasional Redstart but Autumn 2026 was comfortably the best recorded so far with August & September offering plenty of ‘goodies’ for long suffering patchers and visiting birders alike. Highlights included multiple Redstart, good numbers of Spotted Flycatcher and only our 2nd & 3rd records of Pied Flycatcher. A rough timeline of the arrivals is as follows:

24/7/26 – Early signs of movement with a Spotted Flycatcher, 2 Blackcap & 5 Chiffchaff (AP).

19/8/26 – The first in what will be a good run of Common Redstart (a 1st winter male) is found by NL along with a Spotted Flycatcher, Lesser Whitethroat and 3 Willow Warbler.

20/8/26 – The Redstart remains and & NL adds a Garden Warbler.

24/8/26 – A new Redstart (female) is found by AP along with 2 Spotted Flycatcher, Lesser Whitethroat, 5 Willow Warbler and 12+ Chiffchaff. A Yellow Wagtail flies over.

27/8/26 – With an influx on the east coast Pied Flycatcher seems on the cards and only the 2nd record is found after a night of rain by AP.  2 Spotted Flycatcher, Garden Warbler, 2 Whitethroat and 6 Willow Warbler are also recorded.

30/8/26  - A minimum of 3 Redstart are recorded including 2 adult males, Spotted Flycatcher, 2 Whitethroat & 4 Blackcap also (AP).

1/9/26 – NL has 3 Redstart in one location (Mason Place corner).

8/9/26 – A new female Redstart is found by AP following a clear out. She will linger for a few days and at the time of writing was the last of the autumn.

15/9/26 – A great finish with our 3rd record of Pied Flycatcher, 2 Spotted Flycatcher & c20 Chiffchaff (AP).

Alongside the Pied Flycatchers, which are only rarely encountered in the South of the county, the clear highlight was the passage of Common Redstart which were a joy to watch with a minimum of five different birds present during the period (and quite probably more involved). But how did the cemetery compare to other sites during a similar period? Their seemed to be a paucity of passage birds in the South of the county (though Wheatear & Whinchat were recorded in the Trent Valley and at Locko Park and Kedleston Park scored a Pied Flycatcher too), which made the cemetery’s records stand out even more.

The scrubby habitat present in several areas of the cemetery certainly provides favourable habitat for chats and flycatchers to feed and hide in and the Derby area did have some favourable weather conditions during the period, light winds coupled with overnight rain, creating ideal conditions for a ‘fall’, but is this solely responsible for the decent run of records?

There is no doubt that increased observer coverage had a positive impact. The migrants were arriving just after the juvenile Green Woodpeckers had fledged and the adults were still noisily feeding their young which meant that their were already more birders and photographers present than normal. The impact of social media (including local birding WhatsApp groups) in getting the sightings into the public domain quickly, the ease of visiting the cemetery and the fact that its always lovely to see a Redstart = more pairs of eyes = more birds found. The Patagonia picnic table effect!

Whatever the reason, early Autumn 2026 was one to remember and we’ll wait and see what next year turns up.

See photos in the gallery