A warm one

Sunny, 23°, light W.

A couple of hours well spent up by the gravel pit today:

3 Shelduck, an Egyptian Goose, 2 Gadwall, 2 pair of Mallard with 18 young between them, 2 Oystercatcher, 2 Little Ringed Plover, a Dunlin, 7 Lapwing, a Peregrine and 2 Grey Heron over, a Sedge Warbler, a Swallow and 2 Sand Martin.

On the walk out: a Willow Warbler at CSW, a Common Whitethroat, Green Lane, 4 Blackcap and 5 Chiffchaff.

A single Fieldfare flying alongside the road on Cholsey Hill.  

Good to see Michael P at the pit today. yesterday he had 3 Wheatear on Lollingdon Hill, 6 Fieldfare nearby and a singing Cetti’s Warbler on Cholsey Marsh.

Butterflies: Brimstone, Orange Tip, Holly Blue, Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock and Speckled Wood.

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.

More sunshine

Sunshiny day, 17°, light ENE.

Lollingdon, River and Bunk areas: Another sunny day but we need some rain.

Wheatear, Yellow Wagtail, Willow Warbler, Common Whitethroat, several Blackcap, Cetti’s Warbler, 3 Meadow Pipit, 2 Mistle Thrush, Swallow, Green Sandpiper, 2 Little Ringed Plover, 5 Lapwing, 8 Tufted Duck, a Teal and a Little Egret on Church road flood again.

Mammals: Brown Hare and Roe Deer.

Butterflies: Brimstone, Green-veined White, Orange Tip, Holly Blue, Peacock and Speckled Wood.

AD, MM, PC & RB.

Kestrel

Roe Deer

Wren

Wheatear courtesy Alan

Peacock courtesy Alan

Still b****y raining

Showery, 17°, light SSW.

Stonechat still present along Bunk Line and a Common Whitethroat. Per Alan:

A few new ones for the year

Mainly cloudy, 15°, breezy SE.

 
Bunk, Lollingdon and River areas covered. Common Whitethroat, Sedge Warbler, 20+ Chiffchaff, 4 Willow Warbler, Cetti’s Warbler, 8+ Blackcap, Goldcrest, 6 Swallow, 3 Sand Martin, a Bullfinch, 2-3 Corn Bunting, 6 Yellowhammer, a few Reed Bunting, Nuthatch, Grey Wagtail, 6+ Lapwing, Water Rail, 2 Herring Gull and a Raven etc.

Lots of Buzzard in the air today with several displaying plus a Sparrowhawk, Kestrel and Peregrine.

Mammals: Brown Hare.

Butterflies: Brimstone, Orange Tip, Small Tortoiseshell, Comma and Peacock.

AD & PC.

Common Whitethroat courtesy Alan

Small Tortoiseshell

Blackcap courtesy Alan

Corn Bunting courtesy Alan

Mistle Thrush

Whitethroat

Intermittent Sunshine, 7°, breezy ENE.

Our first Common Whitethroat this year. Courtesy Alan

A warm one

Mainly sunny, 20°, light SSW.

Appears to have been an arrival of Sedge Warbler overnight as Alan counted quite a few along the River/Marsh this morning along with several Chiffchaff and Blackcap and a Common Whitethroat.

I took a hike out to Lollingdon. Although reasonably quiet there was a Willow Warbler in song on the Hill along with a Common Whitethroat, several Chiffchaff and Blackcap.

Another Common Whitethroat noted at Little Lollingdon plus the usual Yellowhammer, Linnet and 3 Reed Bunting, etc.

Alan visited the Gravel pit later in the day: 4 Little Ringed Plover, a Common Sandpiper, 2 Yellow Wagtail, a Grey Wagtail and a Lapwing.

Mammals: Brown Hare, Roe Deer & Muntjac in garden again.

Butterflies: Brimstone, Small White, Orange Tip, Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock, Comma and Speckled Wood.

Common Whitethroat

A pair of Crows collecting nest material

One of several Yellowhammer present

Common Sandpiper courtesy Alan

Lapwing courtesy Alan

Muntjac taken a liking to the Tulips in the garden.

A few migrants and LRP's protected - we hope.

Mainly cloudy, 16°, light SSW.

Managed to get out today so a walk along the Bunk line was in order and Alan out along the Marsh/River.

Firstly, a Willow Warbler singing in the small wood by the school was a good start followed by a Tawny Owl hooting near the brook.

Up at the gravel pit were 10 Tufted Duck, 3, poss 4 *Little Ringed Plover, 2 Mallard and singles of Black-headed Gull and Lesser Blackback Gull.

A good number of Yellowhammer, Blackcap and Chiffchaff in song today, plus another Willow Warbler at CSW, 2 Jay, 2 Green Woodpecker, a Common Whitethroat, Green Lane, Little Owl, Kestrel and a Yellow Wagtail flew over towards Cholsey Hill.

The River/Marsh: Sedge Warbler, Willow Warbler, Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Cetti’s Warbler, Water Rail, Swallow and Grey Wagtail.

Late afternoon at the Gravel Pit were 3 Yellow Wagtail, 10 Tufted Duck still, a single Lesser Blackback Gull and 2 Little Ringed Plover.

Mammals: Brown Hare.

Butterflies: Brimstone, Small White, Orange Tip, Peacock, Comma, Small Tortoiseshell and Red Admiral.

*Alan had a meeting yesterday with the site supervisor at the Gravel Pit in Cholsey regarding the potential breeding of at least one pair of Little Ringed Plover.

Grundon’s (who work the pit) site supervisor was very accommodating regarding the bird’s presence and stated that the area they were frequenting would be left alone.

We will continue to monitor the progress of the LRP’s throughout their stay at this site.

If successful this will be the first record of LRP’s breeding in the parish.

These birds are protected by the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981 and thank you to Grundon’s for assisting in this and to Alan for being alert to the situation.

Little Ringed Plover(s)

Yellow Wagtail ↕ courtesy Alan

A quiet day

Sunny intervals, 10°, light NNE.

A fairly quiet day with a slow trickle of Swallow moving thru.

Alan was down on the Marsh early this morning with a Barn Owl hunting over and just a single Common Whitethroat present still.

Also Cetti’s Warbler, Willow Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Kingfisher etc. then later out at Lollingdon where 12 Fieldfare were around.

The Bunk line today was also somewhat quiet with a few Swallow and Sand Martin feeding over the gravel pit. A pair of Lapwing present and the usual Little Owl and 4 Jay.

Hopefully when this northerly airflow disappears we should start getting more migrant sightings!

A single Brimstone butterfly seen.

Common Whitethroat courtesy Alan

Jay ↕

Milder at last!

Sunny intervals, 12°, light NNE.

The male Common Redstart still present on Lollingdon Hill along with a single Wheatear, 2 Kestrel, at least 3 Corn Bunting singing, 2 Blackcap and a couple of Yellowhammer.

A Little Owl and 2 Redwing present nearby and a single Swallow overhead.

A Willow Warbler singing near the Bullshole.  

Alan reports the usual stuff on the Marsh and a few Swallow moving thru and our first Common Whitethroat of the year.

2 Tufted Duck on the gravel pit yesterday . Per Alan.

Butterflies: a few on the wing today, Brimstone, Orange Tip, Peacock and Comma.

Kestrel

Wheatear

Sedge Warbler courtesy Alan ↕

Common Redstart

April so far.

Migrants have been arriving or passing through most of the month so far.

Reed and Sedge Warbler have arrived in good numbers along with Blackcap and Common Whitethroat and a single Garden Warbler noted.

A few Willow Warbler have been seen along with several male and female Wheatear and a couple of Yellow Wagtail flying over.

A single female Ring Ouzel seen on the 17th and a couple of singing Lesser Whitethroat.

Swallow have been moving through in good numbers but not sure if local ones are present yet and several small flocks of House Martin noted.

One lucky person saw a Stoat in their garden last week.

Butterflies have been plentiful during the sunny weather with Brimstone and Orange Tip frequent, also Large White, Small White, Green-veined White, Comma, Peacock, Holly Blue, Small Tortoiseshell, Red Admiral and Speckled Wood. And a surprise of a Painted Lady found by TR in his garden on the 10th.

Tony has also trapped and ID’d a few Moths, Early Thorn, Brindled Beauty and Streamer amongst others and AD has photographed some Spindle Ermine Moths (totally harmless).

Tony has also recorded at least 10 Grass Snake and 60+ Slow-worm in his meadow.

VG has managed to find several specimens of Rugged Oil Beetle in Aston Tirrold but have not had any reports yet of other Oil Beetle species in the Cholsey area.

Thank you to Alan Dawson, Tony Williams, Tony Rayner, Vicky Gilson, Paul Rainsden and others for the information and photos.

Wheatear (AD)

Necklace Ground Beetle (VG)

Rugged Oil Beetle (VG)

 Ashy Mining Bee? (AD)

Brindled Beauty (TR)

 Painted Lady (TR)

The Streamer (TR)

  Ermine Moth Caterpillars (AD)

As a footnote: Loren and I have been ill over the last few weeks and are now making a slow but steady recovery. Subsequently have not been out for almost a month so there are no observations from me here.

Migrants still on the move

Sunny, 20°, light NE.

A lovely autumnal day with wall to wall sunshine.

6 Spotted Flycatcher out at Lollingdon, with 4 around the paddocks and 2 in the cattle field and a singing Goldcrest, 2 Blackcap and several Chiffchaff nearby.

The Common Redstart still present on the hill and 2 Common Whitethroat, 3 Blackcap and a number of Chiffchaff.

2 Kestrel still hunting around the hill and a light passage of Hirundines. I wonder if Hirundines are still passing through on days like today but at a higher altitude and therefore not visible to the naked eye?

Mammals: Brown Hare.

Dragonflies: Southern Hawker & Common Darter.

Butterflies: Large White, Red Admiral (2), Painted Lady (1), Speckled Wood. A belated record of a Clouded Yellow on the Station road allotments a few weeks back. Per TW.

A lot of the field edge conservation strips where I walk have recently been cut, therefore no plants for butterflies, hence the paucity of butterfly records this week!

 Spotted Flycatcher ↕

 Spotted Flycatcher ↕

Common Whitethroat

A breezy day

Sunny intervals, 19°, breezy W.

Quite breezy on the hill today and a few bits and pieces around in sheltered spots.

2 Lesser Whitethroat, 1 Common Whitethroat, 1 Sedge Warbler, 2 Blackcap, 5 Chiffchaff, 2 Spotted Flycatcher and 1 Wheatear.

A Raven flew south, another flyover Yellow Wagtail and a thin trickle of Swallow and the odd House Martin overhead.

Mammals: Brown Hare.

Dragonflies: Common Darter.

Butterflies: Large White, Small White, Red Admiral (3), Painted Lady (2), Speckled Wood (4), Gatekeeper (1) and Meadow Brown (1).