One Swallow does not a summer make.

Mainly sunny, 12°, light E.

A few areas covered today but overall rather quiet.

A Wheatear and 2 Little Egret out at Lollingdon. Per MFJ.

2-4 Swallow, 2 Grey Wagtail, 4 Lapwing, several Fieldfare and Redwing, Meadow Pipit, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Yellowhammer, Herring Gull, Lesser Blackback Gull, Black-headed Gull.

Mammals: Brown Hare.

Reptiles & Amphibians: Common Lizard found by Niall Hammond.  

Butterflies: Brimstone, Comma & Peacock.

Insects: Dark-edged Bee-fly.

PC & AD.

Wet & Windy

Wet and windy, 11°, light to moderate rain, breezy SE.

Not a lot seen today along the Bunk line area.

A Large flock of Fieldfare, Redwing and Starling between the line and Cholsey Hill numbering around 500 birds.

The Little Owl seen in its usual haunt and the Green Sandpiper seen around the gravel pit but the only ducks present were 3 Mallard.

2 Herring Gull, 50+ Lesser Blackback Gull and 100+ Black-headed Gull in the area.

Just a single Chiffchaff noted.

No butterflies seen today but several Brimstone and a Peacock seen yesterday by Alan.

A good colony of Lesser Celandine just coming into flower.

Weekend Bits

Sunny, 8°, light SSE.

3 Stonechat and 4 Stock Dove up at Cholsey meadows on Saturday morning along with a Cetti's Warbler and Kingfisher on the marsh. Per Michael Pocock.

Alan popped over to Dorchester gravel pits to see the Ferruginous Duck again and found 2 Great Egret there.

The first butterfly of the year in Cholsey Church yard, a Comma. Per Alan & Jane Dawson.

Great Egret (above) & Little Egret (below). note differences. Great Egret courtesy Alan.

Comma Butterfly courtesy Jane Dawson

Female Blackcap courtesy Alan

A Spring like day

Sunshine, 12°, light W.

A Merlin seen today flying low over a stubble field at the top of Westfield road. Per Hugh Pope.

A walk out to Lollingdon today produced, 3 singing Chiffchaff (5 in total), a Little Egret, Little Owl, c20 Meadow Pipit and 2 Raven and a handful of Fieldfare.

20+ Yellowhammer still around the Little Lollingdon area, plus 5 Reed Bunting and a flock of c30 Linnet. Several Yellowhammer and Reed Bunting flycatching from the hedge top.

Bunk line, Little Owl, Meadow Pipit, Grey Wagtail, Linnet, singing Chiffchaff and Goldcrest.

Update: Calls from at least 2 Common Scoter passing overhead moving north east at 20:48.

Mammals: Brown Hare & Roe Deer.  

Several butterfly’s on the wing today with Brimstone, Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell and Comma.

Alan also had a Dark-edged Bee-fly.

Peacock on Holly-leaved Berberis

Comma courtesy Alan

Dark-edged Bee-fly courtesy Alan

Chiffchaff doing its best to hide

Watching me watching you. A smart Roe Buck

Yellowhammer

Reed Bunting

Spring? Maybe.

A sunny day, 12°, light to breezy SW.

A spring like day reflected in several butterflies seen on the wing.

The Bunk line/Green lane area pretty quiet today. A few small flocks of Fieldfare and Starling and a Kestrel present. Also a few Meadow Pipit.

2 Mistle Thrush collecting food near the Church, probably have young nearby.

Alan had more luck on Cholsey Marsh with a Cetti’s Warbler and Chiffchaff, several Reed Bunting, a Kingfisher and Water Rail, also Brimstone and Comma butterflies.

Tony Rayner recorded 4 Grass Snake, 13 Slow-Worm and a Field Vole and 3 Brimstone butterflies in his garden today.

Another Brimstone in the garden mid-afternoon.

Comma and Brimstone courtesy Alan Dawson.

Quiet overall

Sunny, 8°, light WNW.

Fairly quiet time out at Lollingdon today. A small flock of Fieldfare and Starling on the hill until they were flushed by a marauding female Sparrowhawk. A single Redwing seen.

A singing Goldcrest near the Millennium Wood and both Treecreeper and Coal Tit song heard nearby.

Looks like the Rooks near Church road are already with eggs as some birds are sitting for long periods.

Alan saw 2 Nuthatch and a singing Chiffchaff at Bow Bridge and a pair of Reed Bunting.

Tony Rayner recorded the first Comma butterfly of the year and a live Grass Snake.

Photos & Video courtesy Alan Dawson

 Reed Buntings

Nuthatch ↕

Stonechats again

Cloudy with a few bright spells, 14°, breezy WNW,

2 Stonechat still present on the hill today and a flock of approx. 50 Fieldfare, 3 Redwing and 20 Starling.

2 Raven flew south east after spending a couple of minutes mobbing a Buzzard.

A Kingfisher present around a nearby pond.

A Wheatear on Cholsey Hill yesterday (22/10). Per Brian Wyatt.

The “Tailess” Red Kite still being seen regularly over the village with at least 4 different sightings.

Dragonflies: 4 Common Darter.

Butterflies: a Comma. Per Alan Dawson.

Stonechat

 Fieldfare (above & below)

 Stonechat (above & below)

 Comma (courtesy Alan Dawson)

Common Darter

Flutterers, Flappers and Gliders

Sunny, 16º, light S.

A beautiful sunny day with a mild breeze saw plenty of butterflies and bees on the wing both in the garden and on Lollingdon hill. A single Comma, several Peacock and double figures of Brimstone and Small Tortoiseshell in total.

Birdwise there were plenty of Buzzards in the air today, scanning from Lollingdon hill saw 11 Buzzard in the air with 3 over the hill itself, also 5 Red Kite, a Kestrel and a Sparrowhawk. Quite a few Rook and Jackdaw flying back and forth over the hill and an almost constant chorus of Skylarks.

The anticipation of summer migrants arriving on the hill was a little presumptuous as the first Wheatear only arrived on Portland this morning, hopefully they will be arriving soon.

Still a few winterers around with Redwing (6) and Fieldfare (20+) seen and still quite a few Lesser Blackback Gulls still on the floods.

A ♀ Great-spotted Woodpecker noted on the north side of the hill.

♀ Blackcap still visiting the garden and feeding on the apples.

Small Tortoiseshells

Rook

Fieldfare

Robin (Loren)

Buzzard

Marsh and the Hill

Sunny, 20, light ESE.

Cholsey Marsh.

Arrived on Cholsey Marsh to a performance of the “Red Arrows”, they were performing somewhere to the south but were passing over regularly.

Anyway, back to the wildlife side. Around 100 Linnets flushed by a Sparrowhawk from a field on the opposite bank of the Thames (Little Stoke) and all flew to the marsh area, flying back around 15 minutes later. Also a flock of 14 Greenfinch on the marsh.

2 Chiffchaffs were with a Tit flock, along with at least 2 Goldcrests. 5 Bullfinch in the hedgerow along the river bank, 3 Meadow Pipits flew over and a Yellow Wagtail.

Several Reed Bunting, a Grey Heron and a Great-spotted Woodpecker in the vicinity.

2 Kingfishers, 1 Mute Swan and 2 Great Crested Grebe on the river.

Lollingdon Hill

Arrived on Lollingdon Hill to some “muck spreading” on the north side of the hill and the subsequence disturbance had moved stuff off the hill, thats if anything was there today!

A few Yellowhammer in the hedgerow to the south and 3 Chiffchaff with a Tit flock close to Westfield road.

A few family parties of Swallows passing thru, 2 Meadow Pipits and a few Skylarks.

There looked to be some good thermals nearby as 2 Gliders were in the airspace above the hill and at one point 2 Red Kite, 2 Buzzard a Sparrowhawk and a Kestrel also “thermalling”.

Marymead

House Martins still present also the odd Swallow from Manor Farm area. Great-spotted Woodpecker and Treecreeper still visiting the garden but it has been quiet lately, just a few Greenfinches, Goldfinches, Chaffinches, Blue and Great Tits etc.

Comma, Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell, Small White and Speckled Wood.

4 Common Darter, 7 Brown Hawker and 8 Migrant Hawkers

And whats this about an Azure Tit in Buckinghamshire?
 

The "Azure" tit in Bucks is now thought to be an escaped Yellow-breasted Tit, its still present this evening.

                                   The Red Arrows

                                   Migrant Hawker

            Comma, note the "comma" on the underwing, hence it's name

                                    Comma

                                   Migrant Hawker

                                    Migrant Hawker

                                   Buzzard

                                   Sparrowhawk

                                   Migrant Hawker, Lollingdon