Getting colder

Sunny, 4°, light WNW.

Alan out along the Bunk line today with numbers of Gulls present. Lesser Blackback Gull, Black-headed Gull, Common Gull and Herring Gull. Plus a Raven overhead and several Fieldfare and Redwing and a Grey Wagtail.

A Barn Owl seen at the weekend (Per Loren) on Cholsey Hill plus c 20 Lapwing (per Alan).

Reptiles: unfortunately Alan found a dead Grass Snake.

Common Gull courtesy Alan

Grass Snake courtesy Alan

Barn Owl courtesy Loren

A Grey Day

Cloudy, 16°, light to breezy NNE.

Rather quiet out at Lollingdon today, a pair of Common Whitethroat have fledged at least 3 young and a few Swift feeding overhead and that was all of note. All the regulars present, plus a Little Owl seen.

No dragonflies or butterflies this morning as probably a bit too cool.

Alan out this afternoon along the river and having a bit more luck as it got warmer. (Bunk line yesterday).

Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Sedge Warbler, Reed Warbler, Common Whitethroat, Reed Bunting, Yellowhammer and Goldcrest.

Mammals: Brown Hare & a Red Fox yesterday.

Reptiles: Grass Snake yesterday.

Dragonflies: Banded Demoiselle, Azure Damselfly, Common Blue Damselfly, Blue-tailed Damselfly, White-legged Damselfly, Emperor, Black-tailed Skimmer.

Butterflies: Large Skipper, Small Skipper, Red Admiral, Painted Lady, Comma, Marbled White, Meadow Brown & Ringlet.

Photos courtesy Alan

Ringlet

Red Fox

Black Rabbit

Weekend catchup

Cloudy yesterday but Sunny today, max 15°, light W.

"Quite a few" Sedge Warbler found on Cholsey Marsh this morning by Alan.

Cetti’s Warbler, Blackcap and Chiffchaff in song, also present on the Marsh.

A single Siskin flew over the allotments yesterday.

A Short-eared Owl on Cholsey Downs on the 2nd. Per Alan.

A Smooth Newt found by Angie Regan in their garden yesterday and several Grass Snake and Slow-worm in Tony Rayner’s garden.

Butterflies: Brimstone, Small White (TR), Orange Tip (TR), Holly Blue (AD), Small Tortoiseshell and Peacock.

Smooth Newt courtesy Angie Regan

Short-eared Owl courtesy Alan

A Stonechat day

Sunny intervals, 14°, breezy W.

7 Stonechat found today with 3 on Lollingdon Hill, 2 near the cattle field out at Lollingdon and 2 found by Alan, 1 by the gravel workings and another near Green lane.

A light movements of mainly House Martin and a couple of Swallow over the hill and 2 Kestrel in the area.

A lot of Meadow Pipit out at Lollingdon (100+) and 20+ Yellowhammer and 5 Reed Bunting and 30+ Skylark scattered around the fields.

6 Chiffchaff between the village and Lollingdon.

Yesterday from Tony Rayner: 3 Grass Snake, 45 Slow-Worm, several Wood Mice and Bank Vole. Plus a Brimstone, Small Copper and Common Blue butterflies.

Dragonflies: Several Common Darter.

Butterflies: a few Large and Small White.

Stonechat courtesy Alan

Stonechat

Brimstone courtesy Tony Rayner

Grass Snake & Slow-Worm courtesy Tony Rayner

Brown Hare courtesy Alan

Garden toys

Today in Tony’s Garden.

Nothing much on the bird front except for a lot of Canada Geese flying over.

Butterflies: in our meadow - Small White 2, Large White 1, Red Admiral 1, Small Copper 5.

Reptiles: Grass Snakes 6, Slow-worms 31.

Small mammals: Wood Mice found in 3 places. Bank Voles found in 3 or possibly 4 places.

I continue to find Fox toys in our meadow - must be from nearby gardens.

These are toys that a Fox has been bringing into Tony's garden.

Birds & Butterflies

Sunshine, 12°, moderate SE.

A Grey Wagtail flying around the garden this morning prior to my walk out to Lollingdon.

The Hill was relatively quiet, 2 Kestrel hunting, 10 Fieldfare and 4 Song Thrush feeding and a singing Yellowhammer and Reed Bunting.

More singing Chiffchaff around with numbers just getting into double figures now and Treecreeper singing in the Millennium Wood.

A Mistle Thrush in song and a Great-spotted Woodpecker drumming.

The warmer weather has brought out the insects with several Brimstone butterflies on the wing and 3 Peacock, 2 Small Tortoiseshell and a Comma.

A couple of Spotted Bee-fly also noted.

Tony Rayner recorded the first Small White of the year and a reptile count of 7 Grass Snake and 36 Slow Worm. And 3 Redwing in a neighbours Beech tree.

Alan was also out today on the other side of the village. Chiffchaff, Corn Bunting, Yellowhammer, pair of Treecreeper, a Peregrine, a female Sparrowhawk with prey and Black-headed and Lesser Blackback Gulls.

Brimstone and Comma butterflies.

 Skylark (courtesy Alan)

 Black-headed Gull (courtesy Alan)

 Fieldfare

 Peacock

 Brimstone

 Lesser Blackback Gull (courtesy Alan)

Small White (courtesy Tony Rayner)

Grass Snake, Chiffchaff, Wheatear & Hare

Mainly cloudy with a few sunny spells, 9°, breezy NE.

3 Wheatear (all males) on Lollingdon Hill today and a pale Common Buzzard and a Peregrine overhead.

A few Meadow Pipit and 2 Pied Wagtail moving through and a handful of Fieldfare seen.

4 Chiffchaff feeding together on the north side of the hill and several singing en route and a Chiffchaff in the garden this afternoon.

TW has had 4 Blackcap (3f & 1m) wintering around his garden feeding mainly on apples.

Mammals: Brown Hare & Roe Deer.

Reps: Grass Snake.

Quite a few photos today. Firstly one of three Grass Snake in Tony R's Garden.

Secondly a series of Chiffchaff pics.

Thirdly a few pics of the Wheatears

Fourthly, a Hare that came towards, became aware of something, then sussed it and was gone.

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 ↕

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)

Eastender Reptiles

Some interesting reptile records for 2014:

“A few amazing numbers for our site in 2014:

Common Lizard

No of days when looked for and seen 97: Grand total of the 97 counts 707

Grass Snake

No of days when looked for and seen 80: Grand total of the 80 counts 426

Slow worm

No of days when looked for and seen 89: Grand total of the 89 counts 4,436

Highest daily count 124

2014 was our best year for reptiles since records began in 2000.”

“Recently while walking the circuit from Cholsey Church and beside the Bunk to Wallingford Road via Green Lane.

16 Linnets in Shepheards Garden; 10 Yellowhammers beside the next field by The Bunk; 140 Lesser Blackback Gulls overhead; and along Green Lane - 6 Mallard; 1 Common Snipe, 2 Grey Herons and 9 Teal.

Finally beside the Wallingford Road a Dog Fox just opposite the Caps Lane junction.”

The Eastender.

Back to normal service soon, have been in Yorkshire for several days and anxious to get the Cholsey year list off to a good start! Thanks to those who have emailed me with sightings recently.

Birds, Butterflies and Litter!

Sunny spells, 20º, light W.

Cholsey Marsh and Bow Bridge.

Decided on a walk this afternoon so drove down to Cholsey marsh and took a leisurely walk to Bow Bridge and back.

On arrival, the usual Sedge Warblers song is the first thing you hear, their scratchy song coming from various points on the marsh.

Then hearing the odd Whitethroat, Reed Warbler, Blackcap, Chiffchaff and Reed Bunting and today, also a Lesser Whitethroat. At one point, it went very quiet and on looking around, I saw a female Sparrowhawk circling over the marsh. She eventually flew off west, being shepherded by a few Swallows. Within a few moments, the marsh returned to its normal volume.

The Mute Swan pair have lost one of the cygnets as only three were with the adult birds today. Also a couple of Great-crested Grebe on the river.

A Grey Heron and a single Cormorant seen also. (Grey Heron seen yesterday flying over Cholsey Hill).

Moving a little further upriver there is a wild flower meadow and a hedgerow that was full of butterflies, mainly Meadow Brown along with Large and Small White, Large Skipper, Red Admiral, Comma, Small Tortoiseshell, singles of Small Copper and Holly Blue and 2 to 3 Silver-washed Fritillaries.

The only Dragonflies seen were about a dozen Banded Demoiselles.

On the way back I encountered a flock of a least 18 Long-tailed Tits, there were certainly more as I could hear them calling from the opposite river bank as well.

A Hobby circled overhead for a few minutes being mobbed by Swallows, House Martins and Swifts and unusually a single Sand Martin.

A few Greenfinch, Linnet, two Bullfinch and Goldfinch in the riverbank hedges.

A Grass Snake seen briefly, I was not fast enough to get a good angle and focus on it before it became aware of my presence and shot off. The Pyramid Orchid is still in flower. There are also some Bee Orchids nearby.

A Great-spotted Woodpecker now a daily visitor to the garden, along with three Grey Squirrels, two adults and a juvenile.
Tawny Owls heard over the past two nights calling.
Also a Pipistrelle Bat hunting in the garden tonight.

A Pied Wagtail collecting food in the meadow this afternoon.

On another note, what’s with all the rubbish being left along the river bank and Ferry Lane, beer and cider cans, coke cans, portable bar-b-q’s, plastic drinks bottles and other assorted litter and even a bloody wheel chair. There was also a double mattress dumped last week that has since been removed.

  Take it with you!!!! Please.

 Grass Snake, could not get a good angle on it before it shot off!

                                   Silver-washed Fritillary