May bows out quietly

Cloudy, 17°, breezy NE.

Exceedingly quiet out at Lollingdon today. Very little bird song with the odd Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Common Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat, Reed Bunting, Yellowhammer and Corn Bunting heard.

Little else seen apart from a couple of Lapwing!

Mammals: Brown Hare.

Dragonflies: Banded Demoiselle.

Butterflies: Speckled Wood.

 

Common Whitethroat

Mother Shipton Moth courtesy Alan

Black-tailed Skimmer courtesy Alan

Cuckoo

Sunny, 19°, breezy NE.

A couple of new species for the year. Cuckoo. Initially heard by RB on Saturday near the Bunk Line and then the following day at Cholsey Marsh with another on the other side of the river.

Alan heard the Cuckoo again today plus a Common Tern flying up-river and a Hobby overhead.

Also found a Black-tailed Skimmer along the river and a Broad-bodied Chaser a few days earlier. The 13th & 14th species of dragonfly for this year.

Cuckoo from a couple of years back at Cholsey Marsh

Small Blue courtesy Alan

Broad-bodied Chaser courtesy Alan

A bit samey

A sunshiny day, 20°, light NNE.

A bit samey out there at the moment with most birds settling into their breeding cycles.

A good number of Swift around the top end of Papist way and Cholsey Meadows plus some House Martin. Also 4 Swift regularly over the Station Road area.

Negative for any Swift and House Martin along Church Road and one of the Swift nest boxes has been usurped by a pair of Blue Tit who appear to be feeding young.

Also negative for Cuckoo and Bullfinch in the parish so far this year!

A Hobby seen over Honey Lane flying east. Per MFJ.

Little Owl seen out at Lollingdon, first time in a while.

Mammals: Brown Hare.

Dragonflies: Beautiful Demoiselle (up until 2020 this Demoiselle was very rare in the parish and so far this year they are as common as Banded Demoiselle), White-legged Damselfly, Clubtail etc.

Butterflies: Brimstone, Small White, Green-veined White, Orange Tip, Common Blue, Red Admiral, Peacock & Speckled Wood.

Insects: Dotted Bee-fly.

Prospecting House Martins courtesy Alan ↕

White-legged Damselfly courtesy Alan

Insects on the up and birds steady

Sunny, 20°, light N.

Lollingdon and the River areas covered today with insect species beginning to proliferate, birds stable and no mammals etc.

River: Lesser Whitethroat, Garden Warbler, Reed Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Chiffchaff, Blackcap and Common Whitethroat etc.

Lollingdon: Lesser Whitethroat, Common Whitethroat, Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Lapwing, Mistle Thrush, Corn Bunting, Reed Bunting, Yellowhammer and 3 Yellow Wagtail etc.

Dragonflies: Beautiful Demoiselle (10+ river & 1 Lollingdon Hill), Banded Demoiselle, Large Red Damselfly, Common Blue Damselfly, Azure Damselfly, Blue-tailed Damselfly, Red-eyed Damselfly, Emperor Dragonfly, Clubtailed Dragonfly, Hairy Dragonfly, Four-spot Chaser (1 in garden).

Butterflies: Brimstone, Small White, Green-veined White, Orange Tip, Holly Blue, Common Blue, Small Blue, Brown Argus, Small Tortoiseshell, Red Admiral, Peacock, Speckled Wood and Small Heath.

Paul & Alan.

“A couple of county rarities today with a Montagu’s Harrier on Otmoor and a Golden Oriole near Witney.”

A number of photos today

Corn Bunting

Red-eyed Damselfly courtesy Alan

Beautiful Demoiselle (m)

Clubtailed Dragonfly courtesy Alan

Azure Damselfly

2 Mistle Thrush

Lapwing

Yellow Wagtail ↕

Blue-tailed Damselfly courtesy Alan

Small Blue courtesy Alan

Red-eyed Damselfly courtesy Alan

Dragons & Butterflies Pt II

 Some of the insects captured yesterday by Alan.

Brown Argus

Small Heath

Azure Damselfly

Common Blue Damselfly

Four-spot Chaser

Dragons & Butterflies

Mainly sunny, 19°, light NNE.

Alan with a day of Dragons and Butterflies today.

Dragonflies: Beautiful Demoiselle, Banded Demoiselle, Common Blue Damselfly, Blue-tailed Damselfly, Emperor Dragonfly and Hairy Dragonfly.

Butterflies: Brimstone, Small White, Orange Tip, Holly Blue, Brown Argus, Red Admiral, Peacock, Speckled Wood and Small Heath.

Emperor Dragonfly, one I took a couple of years back.

Buntings

Overcast then brighter, 19°, light N.

A bit of a come down after a week at Portland. However back to the reality of Cholsey birding.

A walk out to Lollingdon was somewhat quiet. 3 Corn Bunting, 2 Reed Bunting, 6 Yellowhammer, 8 Common Whitethroat, 1 Lesser Whitethroat and 3 Lapwing plus 12 Swallow and a Sparrowhawk over.

6 Swift seen over the village but no sign of any of the Church Road House Martins yet.

Mammals: Brown Hare.

Dragonflies: Beautiful Demoiselle.

Butterflies: Holly Blue & Speckled Wood.

Corn Bunting

Reed Bunting

Yellowhammer

Beautiful Demoiselle (f)

Reed Warbler

 A sound-byte of a Reed Warbler courtesy Andy King

Reed-Warbler-Andy-King

Last day

Cloudy with a thunderstorm mid-afternoon, 14°, light SE.

Portland

The day started off with a sea watch as usual with a single Arctic Skua passing thru, 1 Red-throated Diver, several Manx Shearwater, 3 Common Scoter and the usual.

Whilst sea watching we heard a call from above, a couple of us recognised the call and on looking up we saw 2 Bee-eater flying fairly high overhead. Unfortunately they turned south and flew out to sea and were not seen again.

A number of migrants incoming with some seen in the Obs garden were, 1 Wheatear, 2 Tree Pipit, 25+ Swallow, 2 Swift, 6 Spotted Flycatcher, 2 Willow Warbler, a Reed Warbler and a Blackcap.

Elsewhere in the bill area, a Whimbrel, 6 Turnstone, a Dunlin and 3 Oystercatcher.

A good week on Portland with a Woodchat Shrike, Hawfinch and Bee-eater the cream of 82 species seen.

Lunch

Thin cloud and sunny, 14°, light WSW.

Portland  

A seawatch today produced 1 Balearic Shearwater along with 20+ Manx Shearwater and an unusual (for this time of year) passage of 200+ Common Scoter plus the usual.

4000+ Gulls still feeding off the Bill, mainly Herring Gull so there must still be a quantity of fish out there for them.

On land a rather sparse passage of birds consisting of a Whimbrel, 2 Willow Warbler, 4+ Chiffchaff, a Blackcap, a Reed Warbler, 25+ Swallow and a House Martin.

A Corn Bunting and a Peregrine also noted.

Just after posting this a Little Owl was calling just outside our window at the Obs.  

Herring Gull taking lunch, courtesy Loren

Linnet bathing

Razorbill

Gannets

Greater Blackback Gull

Rock Pipit

A quiet day

Sunny spells,14°, light WNW.

Not a lot noted today as we took a day to visit the Philpott Museum in Lyme Regis on the Jurassic Coast.

Prior to leaving a brief sea watch was on the cards and produced, 2 Arctic Skua, several Manx Shearwater and 3 Cormorant plus the usuals.

A Peregrine out at sea and a Reed Warbler and a Blackcap in the Obs garden and a few Swift and Swallow in-off.

On the way back to Portland we heard about a Hoopoe at West Bexington (Loren hasn’t seen one) so we dropped in to see if we could find it but to no avail. Not to worry there will be another one.

A few Reed Warbler and a Cetti’s Warbler noted there.

Butterflies: Wall Brown.

West Bexington coastal path

Woodchat

Mainly sunny, 14°, breezy WNW.

Portland  

More activity today with a Woodchat Shrike being found near the Obs and fortunately the bird stayed most of the day but always distant.

A good passage of 200+ Swift, 200+ Swallow and 25+ House Martin through the day plus 6 Spotted Flycatcher, 1 Grasshopper Warbler. 1 Reed Warbler and a Whinchat.

The sea was fairly active with 100+ Manx Shearwater plus 2 Shelduck, 3 Common Scoter, 1 Arctic Skua, 2 Great Northern Diver and the usual Gulls, Gannet and Auks.

Dragonflies: Broad-bodied Chaser.

Butterflies: Large White, Orange Tip, Holly Blue, Red Admiral and Wall Brown.

Moths: Poplar Hawkmoth.

Gropper

Grasshopper Warbler at Cholsey Marsh this morning. Per Alan Dawson.

Four-spot Chaser courtesy Alan

Cholsey Marsh

Grasshopper Warbler reeling at Cholsey Marsh this evening, Per Michael Pocock and 6 Common Clubtail Dragonfly found by Alan today.

Common Clubtail courtesy Alan

A slow day ends with a Finch

Mainly sunny, 13°, N veering NW.

Portland

A rather slow day with only 7 birds trapped and ringed today. Alan Pomroy who was in charge of the ringing today decided to furl the nets at around 17:00 and found a Hawfinch trapped in one.

After ringing the bird, it was brought up briefly to show us before it was released. A good bird to finish the day off.

The sea was mainly ignored today as after a small flurry of Manx Shearwater it quietened down to just a trickle of Gannet, the odd Fulmar, Shag etc and the to-ing and fro-ing of Kittiwake, Gulls and Auks.

As for the rest: a single Whimbrel, a Grey Wagtail, a Hobby, Blackcap, a Garden Warbler, 6 Spotted Flycatcher, c20 Swallow and of course, the Hawfinch.

Dragonflies: Broad-bodied Chaser and an unidentified Hawker.

Butterflies: Large White, several “Blues”, Red Admiral and a Wall Brown.

Hawfinch

Hawfinch courtesy Loren

Spotted Flycatcher

Wall Brown