Rather quiet

A dull cloudy morning brightening up later, 12°, light N.

Pretty quiet all round today.

Yesterday Niall and Alan took on a Bat walk and recorded the following:

“By far the most common bat in the Cholsey area, with about 70% of detections, is the Soprano Pipistrelle. In joint second are the Common Pipistrelle and Noctule.

There are though also Common Serotine, Daubenton's, Nathusius' Pipistrelle, Natterer's and Brown Long-eared.

Detections are tailing off now as the weather is cooler and the nights longer.”

Back to today: Bunk line was rather quiet this morning. Good numbers of Redwing and Fieldfare as usual, a few Song Thrush and approx. 20 Pied Wagtail feeding amongst the cattle and a couple of Jay present.

Bunk line area this afternoon with Alan: 2 Kingfisher, usual Thrushes, a Blackcap and c30 Chaffinch.

And pretty quiet along the river this morning.

Mistle Thrush courtesy Alan

Great-spotted Woodpecker courtesy Alan

Pied Wagtails

?

Bats and a cool start to November

Sunny spells, 12°, breezy SW.

Yesterday Niall Hammond carried out a Bat survey from Cholsey Meadows, top end of Ilges lane, Church road, and Wallingford road area. Species recorded were: Daubenton’s Bat, Natterer’s Bat, Noctule, Serotine and both Common and Soprano Pipistrelle.

Thank you to Niall for the use of his records.

Back to today.

By the time I got along the Bunk line today, Alan had already been along the river and was also along the Bunk.

River: Cetti’s Warbler, Reed Bunting, Chiffchaff, Raven, 2 Stonechat, Mistle Thrush, 15+ Redwing. A few Fieldfare later in the day.

Bunk/Green lane: Raven, Kingfisher, Grey Wagtail, Jay, Herring Gull, Chiffchaff, Skylark, Meadow Pipit, Pied Wagtail and to top the lot, a female Merlin flew towards Cholsey Hill.

The Golden Plover flock has increased to c200. Per Alan.

Mammals: Red Fox plus Niall’s Bats and Alan’s Roe Deer.

Dragonflies: Common Darter.

Butterflies: Red Admiral.

Photos courtesy Alan.

Stonechat

Egyptian Geese

Jay

Stonechat

Sunny intervals, 7°, light W.

Very quiet and still out there today, the odd Mistle and Song Thrush singing but little going on.

Alan found a Stonechat out to the north west of the village. And a Buzzard feeding on what appears to be a dead chicken.

2 Mistle Thrush on the playing fields.

A scattering of Fieldfare and Redwing but no large flocks noted.

Around 1000 Gulls settled near the pig fields but too distant for ID.

Mammals: Roe Deer, and a couple of Pipistrelle seen flying to the south of the village earlier this week! Per HM.

Butterflies: a Brimstone seen yesterday in the village. Per Geoff Wyatt. Only the 10th January and 2 butterfly species seen!

A quiet end to August

Mainly sunshine, 22°, breezy SSW.

A relatively quiet time today, a Common Redstart (m) on the south side of the hill and 2 Spotted Flycatcher on the north side.

Nearby, a single Blackcap and Common Whitethroat and several Chiffchaff.

The Great Egret seen on the 10th August was seen prior to that on a garden pond near Caps Lane.

Mammals: Brown Hare. A Barbastelle Bat recorded near East End farm in the last week. The detector records each fly past and Barbastelle was recorded most frequently followed by Common Pipistrelle and Noctule.

Dragonflies: Brown Hawker & Common Darter.

Butterflies: Large White, Small White, Red Admiral (1), Painted Lady (4), Speckled Wood and Small Heath (1).

A Butterfly day & Wheatears

Sunny, 12°, light WNW.

3 Wheatear still present on Lollingdon Hill along with 6 Fieldfare and 2 Meadow Pipit.

A Raven heard calling nearby and the Little Owl seen.

At least 7 Chiffchaff heard/seen in song and 2 Blackcap seen out at Lollingdon.

Several Yellowhammer singing in various places and a couple of Treecreeper in song.

Butterflies: Brimstone, Green-veined White, Orange Tip (TR), Small Tortoiseshell and Peacock.

Moths: Mottled Grey (another new sp for Cholsey, perTR).

Insects: Black Oil Beetle and Dotted Bee-fly.

a (Common) Pipistrelle flying around the meadow at dusk.

Peacock

Brimstone (courtesy Alan Dawson)

Yellowhammer (courtesy Alan Dawson)

Dotted Bee-fly (courtesy Alan Dawson)

Wheatear

Of Bats, Reptiles & More Housing

There is a new application for houses at Old Blackalls farm. P18/S4273/O)

The ecological survey with Bats undertaken on the Old Blackall's site for the applicant together with TR’s son’s monitoring here this year show very similar results.

It seems that we have a remarkable 8 species of bat, Common Pipistrelle, Soprano Pipistrelle, Noctule, Leisler's, Natterers, Barbastelle, Serotine and Brown Long Eared.

Bats enjoy a high degree of protection especially Barbastelle which is very rare and a UK Biodiversity Action Plan species.

There are few records of this species in Oxon & Berks.

Clearance of the site and housing estate light pollution are bound to threaten the continuing presence of these species in the area.

Also 

The Countryside Officer, Dominic Lamb, reports a medium population of Slow-worms and low numbers of Grass Snakes in the vicinity.

He also states “that these reptiles would need to be translocated off site - but that no receptor site has been identified”.

You wouldn't think from this that the area is arguably one of the top reptile sites in the county (if one ignores Adders and there are precious few of these now) One left at Bix!

From such an overgrown site we don't see how these reptiles can be gathered without huge clearance and given that half of them are probably on land adjoining Tony Rayner’s. The estimate of the populations are 150 Slow-worm and 20 Grass Snake not to mention the Common Lizard.

We wonder how far down on the political priorities is the environment!

Leisler's Bat (courtesy The Wildlife Trusts)

Bats & Bits

An edited version of an email sent to me by TR.

TR’s son Fred has become a Bat enthusiast and has bought an Echo Meter Pro Bat detector.

Switching it on overnight and leaving it the results are then analysed the following morning. It identifies the species for you and the number of passes made.

It was recorded during the time when East End farm was being demolished and more Bats were seen during this period with most coming from the direction of the farm area.

The results are as follows:

18th June 2018:

Common Pipistrelle: 13 passes

Soprano Pipistrelle: 2 passes

Noctule: 7 passes

Leisler’s Bat: 1 pass

21st June 2018:

Common Pipistrelle: 4 passes

Soprano Pipistrelle: 16 passes

7th August 2018:

Common Pipistrelle: 20 passes

Soprano Pipistrelle: 11 passes

Noctule: 17 passes

Natterer’s Bat: 1 pass

Until we had these results we were unaware that we had Natterer’s and Leisler’s in the area. The latter being a rare species in England.

Butterflies: still finding Small Copper in the garden.

And a Kestrel roosting on the cottage.

My input:

It is quite possible that East End farm was a roost site for several species of bat and has now been destroyed. I hope that the bats can find new roost sites (especially for winter hibernation) in the local area.

Our resident breeding species in the UK are: Alcathoe Bat, Barbastelle, Bechstein's Bat, Brandt's Bat, Brown Long-eared Bat, Common Pipistrelle, Daubenton's Bat, Greater Horseshoe Bat, Grey Long-eared Bat, Leisler's Bat, Lesser Horseshoe Bat, Nathusius' Pipistrelle, Natterer Bat, Noctule, Serotine, Soprano Pipistrelle and Whiskered Bat.

5 other Bat species that rarely turn up in the UK from continental Europe and are: Greater Mouse-eared Bat (possibly are very rare resident), Pond Bat (1 record), Kuhl’s Pipistrelle, Parti-coloured Bat and Northern Bat (1 record).

All Bats in the UK are protected species under the Wildlife & Countryside Act.

You will be committing a criminal act if you:

1. Deliberately capture, injure or kill a bat

2. Intentionally or recklessly disturb a bat in its roost or deliberately disturb a group of bats

3. Damage or destroy a bat roosting place (even if bats are not occupying the roost at the time)

4. Possess or advertise/sell/exchange a bat (dead or alive) or any part of a bat

5. Intentionally or recklessly obstruct access to a bat roost

For more information go to: UK Bats

Daubenton's Bat (courtesy Bat Conservation Trust)

Orchid

Sunny, 28°, light S.

At least 2 Nuthatch in the garden this evening along with a Great-spotted Woodpecker.

(Common) Pipistrelle Bats feeding over the meadow tonight.

A Common Spotted Orchid growing wild in the garden again this year.

Dactylorhiza fuchsii

Birds & Bats in the garden

Overcast, 17º, light NE

A Chiffchaff in the garden today and 28 Goldfinch and a Yellow Wagtail over the garden.

Several Pipistrelle Bats hunting the garden tonight.

Bath time for one of the local Wood Pigeons

Cuckoos and a Tiger.

Cloudy, 16º, breezy NE.

At least 1 young Cuckoo seen being fed by a Reed Warbler at Cholsey marsh today and possibly another youngster seen. (per Alan Dawson).

A Scarlet Tiger moth on Buddleia spotted today by my daughter in the garden but flew off before I got the camera.

Common Pipistrelle bats hunting around the garden most evening this week.

A few hours spent at the Wittfest this afternoon in Long Wittenham but not much seen...................Great-spotted Woodpecker, Buzzard and Sparrowhawk noted.

               Cuckoo at Cholsey marsh (courtesy Roger Wyatt-archive pic)