Bunk

Sunny, 20°, light WSW.

Bunk: 22 Pied Wagtail and 18 Lapwing (first of the autumn). Per Brian Wyatt.

4 Chiffchaff, a Common Whitethroat and Blackcap, 2 Yellowhammer and a single Meadow Pipit. Other than that, pretty quiet.

A Tawny Owl in garden at dusk and approx. 500 large Gulls flew NNE over Garden.

Mammals: 2 Common Pipistrelle hunting garden at dusk.

Dragonflies: Southern Hawker and Common Darter.

Butterflies: Brimstone, Large White, Small White, Red Admiral, Peacock and Speckled Wood.

Quiet start to October

Mainly cloudy, 17°, light SSW.

2 Stonechat out at Lollingdon, 3 Raven, Sparrowhawk, a Kingfisher, 20+ Meadow Pipit, 4 Yellowhammer, several Siskin, 9 Chiffchaff, a Blackcap etc.

Dragonflies: Common Darter.

Butterflies: Small White, Red Admiral and Peacock.

A quiet Bunk area

Sunny at first the cloudy, 17°, light N.

Hard work today in finding anything of note and a contrast to last Friday.

11 Chiffchaff, a Blackcap, 2 Meadow Pipit, 2 Raven, a Grey Heron and a flock of c120 Linnet etc.

Chiffchaff, Nuthatch and Coal Tit in garden.

Dragonflies: 1 Southern Hawker and several Common Darter.

Butterflies: 2 Brimstone, several Large White and Small White, 5 Red Admiral, 1 Peacock and 2 Speckled Wood.

Bunk

Overcast, 15°, light E.

Bunk area: c15 Swallow and 50+ House Martin over. 14 Chiffchaff, 4 Blackcap, 2 Common Whitethroat, a Lesser Whitethroat, a Garden Warbler, 2 Yellowhammer, 7 Siskin, 14 Greenfinch, 2 Grey Wagtail, c20 Pied Wagtail, 6 Meadow Pipit, a Curlew over, 2 Raven, 2 Grey Heron, 6 Cormorant over, 2 Egyptian Geese, several Greylag and Canada Geese etc.

Tawny Owl in garden @ 21:10.  

Butterflies: 2 Red Admiral.

Lollingdon

Sunny periods, 17°, light ENE.

A walk out to Lollingdon and back.

30+ Meadow Pipit in a weedy field, 4 Stonechat nearby,7 Mistle Thrush, 17 Chiffchaff, 24 Swallow and 32 House Martin over, a Grey Wagtail and 16 Grey Partridge.

Several Siskin over Church Road. Per RB.  

Dragonflies: Southern Hawker and Common Darter.

Butterflies: numerous Whites, several Red Admiral and Speckled Wood and a single Gatekeeper.

VizMig

Mainly cloudy, 17°, light NE.

A couple of bouts of VizMig from the garden:

15:00-15:30, 15 Swallow and 6 House Martin.

17:45- 18:15, 18 Swallow, 38 House Martin, 1 Sand Martin & 14 unidentified Hirundines.

Local movement, 2 Canada Geese and 100+ Lesser Blackback Gull.

Archive Pic

Quiet

Sunny periods, 15°, light NNW.

Pretty quiet along the Bunk area today. A Green Sandpiper flew from the gravel pit area, a Bullfinch nearby, 4 Swallow over and 2 Yellowhammer and 5 Chiffchaff elsewhere.

Dragonflies: Southern and Migrant Hawker.

Butterflies: Small White, Red Admiral and Speckled Wood.

Insects: European Hornet.

Lazy Sunday

Sunny spells, 13°, light NNW.

A single Swallow over at 16:40, a Chiffchaff still present in the garden, a Nuthatch visiting and a flyover Grey Plover heard calling heading east at 20:15.

Bunk

Sunny, 22°, light S.

A quiet time along the Bunk area. Hirundine passage was light with a lot of birds too high for naked eye and petered out around midday. Roughly 100 birds counted, a mix of Swallow and House Martin.

The first Siskin of the autumn with 5 overhead and a few Meadow Pipit passing through.

An increase in Skylark, Pied Wagtail and Black-headed Gull noted, 6 Chiffchaff and 2 Blackcap.

Dragonflies: Migrant Hawker and Common Darter.

Butterflies: Brimstone, Large White, Small White, Red Admiral and Speckled Wood.

A bit of VizMig

Mostly cloudy, 20°, breezy SW.

Whilst sorting a few bits in the garden around midday I noticed a number of Hirundines passing overhead so decided to do a bit of VizMig.

Over the next 2+ hours, counted c175 House Martin, c100 Swallow and 3 Meadow Pipit passing over in a roughly southerly direction.

A thin trickle of birds later throughout the afternoon of another 50 House Martin and 20 Swallow.  

8 Long-tailed Tit, a Goldcrest and a Chiffchaff in garden.

A Migrant Hawker, 3 Common Darter, a Hummingbird Hawkmoth and several Red Admiral and Whites present.

Bunk & GP.

Overcast, 18°, blustery SSW.

A disappointing walk out along the Bunk area today with very little noted.

10 House Martin, 6 Swallow and 8 Chiffchaff.

At the gravel pit I saw up to 200 Canada Geese and 32 Greylag Geese fly from the area, probably disturbed by heavy machinery.

A couple of years ago the gravel pit workers were co-operative and would feed us information and they set up a small viewing area outside of the boundary for birders to view one of the pits

You cannot now view the gravel pit area any more as the area they set up for us is now intentionally overgrown and has blocked our view.

On discussing this with the pit manager earlier this year he stated that due to a few birders gaining unauthorised access to the pit area they would effectively cease to co-operate with us.

I quite understand the health and safety aspect but this comes across as somewhat vindictive.

The gravel pit, although unwanted by the village has opened up a new habitat that we have not had in Cholsey before.

Little Ringed Plover and Sand Martin have since bred there with LRP not recorded breeding before and Sand Martin not since the 70’s.

A Rock Pipit was also found there, which was a first for Cholsey and several scarce wader and wildfowl species have also been seen/heard there.

So it’s a bit unfortunate that we now have deteriorated relations with the GP management.

Hirundines

Sunny spells, 17°, mod WSW.

In excess of 300 Hirundines moving between Church Road and Lollingdon today. predominately House Martin with a good number of Swallow.

Very little else in the windy conditions although approx. 10 Chiffchaff, 2 Mistle Thrush and 5 Yellowhammer noted.

Butterflies: a Small White, several Red Admiral and a Speckled Wood.

Weekend 13/14 Sep

Weekend weather mainly wet with little sunshine, 15-17°, with light to moderate wind.

Saturday: 16 House Martin, a Swallow, a Sand Martin and a Kestrel over the garden. Chiffchaff & Tawny Owl in.

Hedgehog and Common Pipistrelle.

Common Darter, Red Admiral, Small White and Hummingbird Hawkmoth.

Sunday: Yellow Wagtail over allotments. 2 House Martin over garden and a Chiffchaff in.

Another wet one

Sunshine and showers, 17°, fresh SW.

Along the Bunk Line this afternoon and fortunately missed most of the rain with a thunder storm passing a few kilometres to the east, then another passing closer but to the west.

A Wheatear, 2 Yellow Wagtail, several Pied Wagtail, a Grey Wagtail, 3 Meadow Pipit, 16 Chiffchaff (incl 2 in garden), 2 Blackcap, a single Common Whitethroat, 2 Yellowhammer, 26 Swallow, 30 House Martin, a single Sand Martin, 3 Raven etc.

Dragonflies: A Common Blue Damsel and a Migrant Hawker.

Butterflies: few: Large and Small White, 6 Red Admiral, a Speckled Wood and a Meadow Brown.

Moths: Hummingbird Hawkmoth.

A wet one

Variable cloud and heavy showers, 16°, light to moderate S.

A trip out to Lollingdon and birding in between the rain showers.

Managed to cover most of the hill area: a Spotted Flycatcher, a Lesser Whitethroat, Blackcap, 6 Chiffchaff, 3 Yellow Wagtail overhead, 2 Wheatear, 2 Stonechat, a Whinchat, Raven etc and c50 Swallow and 6 House Martin over.

A few Geese flying over the garden early evening, 20+ Canada, 20+ Greylag and at least 1 Egyptian Goose.

Moths: Hummingbird Hawkmoth in garden.

Cholsey

Mainly sunny, 20°, light S.

Whinchat, Bunk Line yesterday. Per MA.

Muntjac with a fawn in the garden.

Today:

2 Yellow Wagtail over garden and a juv Chiffchaff in garden.

Bunk line, 3 Chiffchaff, Grey Wagtail and a Yellowhammer.

Home & Away

Cloudy with a thunder storm mid-morning, 21°, light ESE.

Our final day at the Obs for this autumn and left around midday. A sea-watch early morning and then packing up to come home with a bit of birding in between.

2 Arctic Skua, a Red-throated Diver, c30 Balearic Shearwater, 2 Manx Shearwater, 3 Common Scoter, 2 Oystercatcher and c15 “Commic” Tern.

VizMig: c50 Yellow Wagtail, 5 Grey Wagtail, 10+ Swallow, 6 Sand Martin, 4 House Martin, a Swift, 4 Meadow Pipit, a Tree Pipit, plus 2 Sparrowhawk, a Chiffchaff, 4 Willow Warbler, 2 Wheatear and a Blackcap.

Dragonflies: Common Darter.

Butterflies: Red Admiral and Wall Brown.

Moths: Striped Hawkmoth, Convolvulus Hawkmoth, Hummingbird Hawkmoth, a Scar Bank Gem and a Latticed Heath.

A catchup from Tony Williams whilst I’ve been away.

Lollingdon Hill: 250+ Swallow and House Martin over.

Bunk area: Spotted Flycatcher, Lesser Whitethroat, Common Whitethroat, several Blackcap, and 4+ Chiffchaff.

5 House Martin, 3 Swift and a skein of c50 Canada Geese over Church Road this evening.

Sunrise

Convolvulus Hawkmoth

Latticed Heath courtesy John Lucas

Scar Bank Gem courtesy John Lucas

Tonight's partial Lunar Eclipse 

Ibis

Sunny, 20°, moderate SE.

Well, the calm didn’t last long with the wind backing from WSW to SE, gaining strength to force 5-6 and putting a bit of a damper on the day’s birding.

A patchy sea-watch to begin with and then hanging around the Obs area.

2 Arctic Skua, c20 Balearic Shearwater, 2 Manx Shearwater, 5 “Commic” Tern, 1 Arctic Tern, 3 Sandwich Tern, 20+ Kittiwake, 1 Mediterranean Gull, 2 Fulmar, 1 Oystercatcher the usual Gannet and 3 Auk sp.

Just 5 of us sea-watching, when one called Glossy Ibis. A flock of at least 14 was very close in and we could just see them above the parapet for around 20 seconds. Martin managed a quick photo before they disappeared from sight and subsequently not seen again.

The land was poor with only a single Willow Warbler noted.

VizMig: c20 Yellow Wagtail, 3 Grey Wagtail, c30 Swallow and 10 Sand Martin.

At around 18:30, Loren spotted a couple of Swift over the Obs. They spent approx. 10 minutes overhead and seemed reluctant to leave but eventually disappeared out over the sea.

Dragonflies: Southern Hawker and Common Darter.

Butterflies: Small White, Red Admiral, Painted Lady, Speckled Wood and Wall Brown.

Moths: Hummingbird Hawkmoth.

Glossy Ibis pics courtesy of Martin Cade.

The winds of Change

Mainly sunny, 20°, light WSW.

Finally, the wind and rain abated and produced a pleasant day for birding.

A morning’s sea-watch: 5 Arctic Skua, 50+ Kittiwake, a Yellow-legged Gull, 60+ Manx Shearwater, 100+ Balearic Shearwater, 60+ “Commic” Tern, 4 Arctic Tern, 2 Common Scoter, a Ringed Plover, a Curlew, a Whimbrel, numerous Gannet and several Oystercatcher.

VizMig and an afternoons walk: Barn Owl, Little Owl, 20+ Grey Wagtail, 30+ Yellow Wagtail, 3 Tree Pipit, 3 Meadow Pipit, a Pied Flycatcher, 4 Willow Warbler, 2 Chiffchaff, 2 Blackcap, a Common Whitethroat, a Sedge Warbler, 2 Whinchat, 3 Stonechat, 31 Wheatear, 4 Raven, a Sparrowhawk, Common Buzzard, a Common Snipe, 110+ Swallow, 30+ Sand Martin, 12 House Martin and 2 Swift.

Dragonflies: Migrant Hawker, Brown Hawker, Southern Hawker and Common Darter.

Butterflies: Clouded Yellow, Large White, Small White, Common Blue, Holly Blue, Red Admiral, Painted Lady, Wall Brown, Speckled Wood and Small Heath.

Moths: Convolvulus Hawkmoth and Hummingbird Hawkmoth.

Sun rise at the Obs

"Greenland" Wheatear courtesy Mark Cutts

 

Pretty quiet

Rain at first then brightening, 19°, fresh SW.

Still windy after a wet start and not much going on. A patchy sea-watch and a couple of brief walks but very little of note.

A Willow Warbler, 1 Common Whitethroat, 1 Wheatear, a Grey Wagtail over and 7 Swallow and 9 Sand Martin. A Barn Owl late evening and a Grey Heron.

Sea-watch: 4 Balearic Shearwater, 2 Fulmar, 2 Common Scoter and a few Kittiwake along with good numbers of Gannet.

Mammals: Common Pipistrelle.  

Dragonflies: Migrant Hawker and Common Darter.

Butterflies: Large White, Small White, Common Blue, Red Admiral, Painted Lady, Speckled Wood, Wall Brown and Small Heath.

Moths: Hummingbird Hawkmoth.