Change in weather but not Birds

Overcast with some very light rain, 7°, light ESE.

Very little change from last week, however a milder day after a week end of rain.

Plenty of Redwing and Fieldfare still around and the Bunting/Finch flock still feeding out on the stubble fields, c100 Linnet, 20’ish Yellowhammer and several Reed Bunting.

2 Jay and a Kingfisher noted and 3 Corn Bunting and a Mistle Thrush on the hill.

A male Blackcap seen in a garden along West End.

The weekends Garden Birdwatch was fairly quiet possibly due to a change in the weather.

The Fieldfare left the garden sometime on Saturday morning but Nuthatch, Coal Tit, Great-spotted Woodpecker and Song Thrush all turned up.

All about Thrushes.....again.

Cloudy with a light mist, 4°, a breezier SE.

Not a lot going on out at Lollingdon today still quite static, again Fieldfare and Redwing scattered everywhere feeding along hedgerows, open fields and woodland.

Also a flock of 38 Redwing in a tight group on the playing fields.

The usual flock of Yellowhammer and Reed Bunting still out at Lollingdon but little else.

A Goldcrest in the Millennium Wood and a couple of Bullfinch at the Bullshole.

The Fieldfare back in the garden today and a Redwing as well.

Several Roe Deer seen.

Garden Thrushes.

A Song Thrush anvil with remains of Snail shells.

Fieldfare visit

Overcast, 0°, light SE.

A cold dull day and a lot of activity in the garden.

The first Fieldfare of this winter arrived in the garden around midday, initially hassled by Blackbirds but eventually held its own and spent the rest of the day feeding on the apples and chasing off the Blackbirds.

A Sparrowhawk has been thru the garden twice but everything scattered before it got near anything.

4 Starling, a Song Thrush, at least 14 Blackbird, a Coal Tit, Treecreeper, Nuthatch, 4 Long-tailed Tit and Great-spotted Woodpecker today as well as the other regulars.

Last 2 pics courtesy Loren

3, 2, 1.

A dull misty day, 3°, light SE.

A busy day and no birding done other than what was in the garden.

Amongst the regulars were
3 Starling, a scarce species in the garden.
2 Song Thrush, very unusual and
1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, a regular.

Also a Treecreeper in song.

Big Garden Birdwatch

Join the RSPB big garden birdwatch this week end.

Big Garden Birgwatch 2017

A static time

Cold and misty with the odd sunny spell, 3°, very light SE.

Lollingdon still rather quiet and not a lot going on, the weather has been pretty cold and static for the past week.

20+ Yellowhammer and 14+ Reed Bunting out in the stubble fields and Redwing and Fieldfare scattered around in good numbers.

15 Corn Bunting, a couple of Yellowhammer and a few Skylark and Meadow Pipit on the hill.

28 Golden Plover flew over moving south west.

5 Roe Deer also noted.

Plovers

Sunny again but cold, 1°, very light SSE.

On returning from Didcot over Cholsey Hill this afternoon Loren noticed a few Golden Plover in the field on the hill. So we popped back, grabbed the camera and bins and went back to have a look.

We eventually located at least 50 Golden Plover and approx. 10 Lapwing feeding on the hill. There may have been more plovers as they were scattered widely on the hill.

There was also around 40 Fieldfare out in the fields and several Black-headed and Lesser Black Back Gull cruising the area.

I had a report of an Otter on the river between Wallingford and Cholsey today. (per Will).

Up on the Hill

Another cold sunny day, 2°, very light NE.

A walk out to Lollingdon today, a small flock of birds in the stubble fields consisting of 10 Reed Bunting, 8+ Yellowhammer, a few Meadow Pipit and a couple of Skylark. Possibly more but difficult to count more distant birds in the stubble.

4+ Pied Wagtail with the sheep on the hill and a Buzzard perched up and a Sparrowhawk soaring overhead.

Also at least 1 Jay, a small flock of Linnet and Fieldfare and Redwing scattered throughout the surrounding fields, also several Song Thrush, many Blackbird and a single Mistle Thrush.

A Song Thrush, 2 Nuthatch, a Coal Tit, 3 Long-tailed Tit and a Treecreeper in the garden today.

2 Blackcap visiting a West End garden along with a Fieldfare. Per TW.

TW also mentioned a large flock of Skylark (hundreds, possibly up to a 1000) and Yellowhammer (c200) plus many Corn Bunting on the downs near Lowbury Hill recently.

Down on the Marsh

Another sunny and chilly day, 2°, light ESE.

A chilly day and once the sun went down the temperature drop was noticeable.

First decent counts at the Cholsey Marsh roost this winter with c120 Corn Bunting, c100 Meadow Pipit, at least 12 Yellowhammer and 6 Reed Bunting all dropping in behind me in to the sedge.

A few Fieldfare and Redwing turning up at dusk and settling in some trees around the marsh.

Also noted: a Chiffchaff, 2+ Bullfinch, 1 Mute Swan, a Grey Heron, Great-spotted and Green Woodpecker, Treecreeper and 2 Cormorant.

Something appeared to be spooking the geese downstream as they kept flying around up towards the marsh and back again calling loudly, as they do, maybe 80+ involved and included both Greylag and Canada Geese.

A little quality

Sunny but chilly, 4°, light SSE.

Quality rather than quantity today with a walk out to the Lees.

A Chiffchaff seen by the Lees working its way along a brook hunting for insects.

2 Raven heard then seen flying towards Lollingdon Hill and a little later a female Merlin flew from Cholsey Hill over the Lees and headed towards Lollingdon.

And a male Peregrine perched on one of the pylons nearby.

Around 20 Fieldfare, 2 Redwing and a Mistle Thrush feeding out on a field near Cholsey Hill.

A Song Thrush, A Starling, Nuthatch, Treecreeper and Long-tailed Tit in garden today.

Several Roe Deer noted.

Winter doldrums

Almost constant rain, 6°, light SE.

A very damp day and a brief visit to Lollingdon Hill.

At 5 Corn Bunting on the hill with 3 in song, a few Yellowhammer and a flock of c50 Linnet nearby.

Very little else noted.

Singing in the rain

A scarce garden visitor

A female Pheasant turned up in the garden yesterday and has decided to stay for a time.
I heard some distant gunfire yesterday morning so I am assuming the she has flown from where ever the shooting was taking place to escape from those big brave hunters and arrived in a relatively safe place.

Photo © Loren

Winter is here.....maybe

Sunny spells and a couple of wintry showers, 4°, fresh NW.

A bit of a chilly day in the windy conditions and the snow that fell last evening has all but disappeared.

Still rather quiet in this part of the world.

A Treecreeper and Green Woodpecker in the Millennium Wood and 3 Mistle Thrush, 2 Redwing and a couple of Fieldfare on the playing field.

Fieldfare and Redwing scattered thinly but widely in the area and feeding almost exclusively on the ground now as virtually all the berries have gone.

6 Pied Wagtail and 2 Meadow Pipit feeding in a partially flooded and frozen stubble field and a couple of Skylark and Yellowhammer in the same field.

14 Blackbird in the garden today……..must have been the apples I put out.

A few Roe Deer noted.

Bullfinch tops the day

Overcast, rain, 9°, breezy SW.

A rather wet day out there and Lollingdon was very quiet, about a dozen Yellowhammer and 20’ish Linnet on the hill and both Fieldfare and Redwing thinly scattered around the Lollingdon area.

The bird of the day was a male Bullfinch that spent around 20 minutes in the garden today feeding on seed heads before moving off out in the meadow.

Not much else noted today unfortunately.

A few garden visitors

A few garden visitors today

News from Tony Rayner.

"Just to report that I had 4 Corn Bunting over our meadow this morning. Have to look back as to when I last recorded them here. Also at least 50 Linnet today.

Our feeders are attracting plenty of birds - an unusually high proportion of which are Great & Long-tailed Tit - both of which seem to be ever present. Also we have a Red Kite regularly perching really close to the cottage".

Cetti's, Chiff & Blackcap

Overcast, rain, 4°, light S.

A rather lightweight roost this evening on the marsh with only about 40 Corn Bunting and 60 odd Meadow Pipit. Maybe the rain had something to do with the lesser numbers of Corn Bunting turning up?

A Cetti’s Warbler and a Chiffchaff present on the marsh, the Chiff was with a Tit flock and the Cetti’s close to Ferry road.

At least 2 Water Rail heard and a couple of Common Snipe flew from the marsh.

5 Black-headed Gull on the river, a Grey Heron, 2 Cormorant, a few Fieldfare and Redwing and 3 Great-spotted Woodpecker around with one “drumming”.

2 Buzzard perched on fence posts on the periphery of the marsh and several Red Kite over.

A male Blackcap coming to Callicarpa berries in a garden recently (per Phil Dyson).

A Song Thrush and a couple of Long-tailed Tit in the garden today.

Best I could get of the Cetti's, it was nearly dark, raining and the bird was constantly moving.