Bunk

Sunny, 15°, light SSE.

Bunk:

2 Mute Swan, 7 Gadwall, 5 Tufted Duck, 4 Lapwing, 300+ Gulls, mainly Lesser Blackback, a few Black-headed Gull and 1 Great Blackback Gull at the Gravel Pit.

Elsewhere: a single Chiffchaff, Blackcap, 3 Goldcrest, 50+ Fieldfare, a handful of Redwing, a Jay, a Grey Heron and 2 Herring Gull.

Good to hear several Skylark in song.

Butterflies: several Brimstone and Peacock.

Floods

Sunny spells, 9°, light WNW.

Well, very quiet out at Lollingdon today. One saving grace was the flooded field and peripheral field margins that were fairly active.

With 90 minutes of watching the area it produced 2 Lapwing, a Grey Heron, 63 Black-headed Gull, 3 Herring Gull, 2 Lesser Blackback Gull, 2 Common Gull and a Great Blackback Gull.

In areas closeby were several Pied Wagtail, Meadow Pipit and Skylark with several flocks of Fieldfare and Redwing moving thru the area, plus a Kestrel hunting nearby.

Alan out later along the Bunk: Lesser Blackback Gull, Herring Gull, Common Gull, Black-headed Gull, Kestrel, Sparrowhawk, Fieldfare, Redwing, Skylark, Reed Bunting and Yellowhammer.

Mammals: Brown Hare.

Lesser Blackback & Greater Blackback Gull

Common Gull courtesy Alan

Lapwing

Moorhen, a now daily visitor to the garden with up to 3 present

The Bunk & The Thames

Cloudy with the occasional sunny spell, 12°, light SW.

Bunk line relatively quiet today as far as diversity goes. Around 500 gulls present between CSW and the Gravel pit. Mainly Lesser Blackback Gull, with 100+ Black-headed Gull, at least 2 Great Blackback Gull and 2 Herring Gull.

Loads of Fieldfare present but not so many Redwing. The usual Yellowhammer present (12+), 2 Grey Heron, a Kingfisher and a Chiffchaff.

At one point I heard a wader call that sounded very much like a Grey Plover but was unable to locate the bird.

Alan on his usual route along the river with Siskin, Stonechat, Treecreeper, Reed Bunting, singing Mistle Thrush, Chiffchaff, Water Rail, Kingfisher and the usual “Winter Thrushes” and Meadow Pipit.

Mammals: Roe Deer.

Yellowhammer

Kingfisher courtesy Alan

Siskin ↕ courtesy Alan: note, the one above is ringed

2 Grey Heron ↕

Some of the many Gulls present

Roe Deer

A Frosty one!

Sunny and frosty, 2°-7° clouding up later, light SW.

A trek out to the Lees today with Loren, still heavy going underfoot.

5 Lesser Redpoll, 2 Stonechat and a single Great Blackback Gull with the Lesser Blackback Gull flock.

Both Green and Great-spotted Woodpecker heard along with a couple of Jay and a small flock of Linnet and the usual Fieldfare and Redwing noted.

Loren found the remains of a Rook. Maybe taken by a Peregrine?

Alan noted Nuthatch, Treecreeper and Siskin.

Also 4 Golden Plover near Silly Bridge yesterday. Per Michael Pocock.

Great-spotted Woodpecker, Treecreeper and Blackcap in the garden today along with the regulars.

A couple of clusters of 7-spot Ladybird found.

Mammals: Roe Deer.

Photo courtesy Loren

7-spot Ladybird courtesy Loren

Nuthatch courtesy Alan

Female Great-spotted Woodpecker

Male Blackcap

GBB

Overcast, 3°, cold NNE.

A cold and quiet walk along the Bunk line with Loren today with very little seen in diversity of species.

The saving grace was a Great Blackback Gull consorting with a flock of Black-headed Gull on one of the floods.

The odd Meadow Pipit, Yellowhammer, a single Green Woodpecker and Kestrel but not a lot else apart from numbers of Corvids and Thrushes.

Nice to see a few signs of the impending spring with buds on some bushes and trees.

Great Blackback Gull. Obviously not photographed in Cholsey 😀

Stonechats

Constant light to moderate rain, 11°. Fresh SW.

A wet ‘n windy day with more rain to add to the already waterlogged ground.

6 (4m, 2f) Stonechat feeding very actively along the Bunk line this morning, (also seen by Alan in the afternoon) another 2, (m & f) at Cholsey Meadows this morning, per Alan.

A good few Gulls around taking advantage of the flooded areas. c150 Black-headed Gull, 3 Herring Gull, 9 Lesser Blackback Gull and 2 Great Blackback Gull.

A small flock of Fieldfare and Redwing, 3 Canada Geese, 5 Common Snipe, a small flock of 8 Meadow Pipit and a Sparrowhawk.

A Mistle Thrush singing from the top of a tree in the adverse weather. No wonder they used to call them Stormcock. And surprisingly 2 Skylark also in song.

Stonechat

 Stonechat (courtesy Alan) ↕

Stonechats

The Sparrowhawk taking shelter from the rain in the garden this afternoon, stayed there for a good hour.

And a Jay turned up late afternoon.

video of Stonechat (courtesy Alan)

Bunk Line/Green Lane

Overcast with rain showers, 11°, light SW.

Earlier in the morning there were a lot of Gulls on the flooded field along Church road. c250 Black-headed Gull, 3 Herring Gull (ads) and 2 Great Blackback Gull (1 ad & 1 1stw).

When I got back most Gulls had dispersed and just 40 odd Black-headed Gull present.

A Peregrine flew over Green Lane, putting a flock of Rook and Jackdaw to flight and a Kestrel hunting nearby.

Good numbers of Thrushes around. I stood by a gateway and watched c500 Thrushes fly past over a period of around 30 minutes. 90% Fieldfare and 10% Redwing. A small flock of around 50 Starling in the area and 2 Pied Wagtail and a single Yellowhammer flew overhead. 2 Mistle Thrush in song, 1 towards Winterbrook and the other close to the village. Also a couple of Song Thrush singing.

Mammals: Roe Deer & Brown Hare.

 Sparrowhawk (courtesy Alan Dawson) ↕

 Starlings

Yesterdays Red Admiral (courtesy Tony Rayner)

Thrushes & Gulls

Overcast and a chilly wind, 8°, breezy SSW.

A Little Owl heard calling out at Lollingdon and a single flyover Raven seen.

Lots of Thrushes still around the area with several hundred Fieldfare, c100 Redwing and a few Mistle Thrush.

1000+ Gulls in the area with most around the pig fields or loafing on flooded areas. One of the floods was close enough to get reasonable views with 60+ Lesser Blackback, 2 Great Blackback and a single Herring Gull present.

Another close flood had 8 Lesser Blackback Gull and 24 Lapwing on.

Mammals: Roe Deer.

Bunk Line

A couple of pics by Alan from along the Bunk line today.

Great Blackback Gull

Meadow Pipit

A little quieter

Overcast and light rain, 19°, light NW.

A quiet day out there today, 5 Chiffchaff, 6 Yellowhammer and a flock of 18 Mistle Thrush on the hill and little going on elsewhere.

A Great Blackback Gull flew over the hill, part of a large numbers of Gulls flying towards a field that was being ploughed near the pig fields. Approx. 700 Gulls present in the area.

A flock of around 30 Yellowhammer and Reed Bunting near Little Lollingdon and 5 Kestrel seen between the village and Lollingdon and a few more Meadow Pipit around.

Mammals: Brown Hare & Short-tailed Vole.

Dragonflies: Common Darter.

Butterflies: just a few Large White & 1 Speckled Wood.

A report passed on to me by Alan from and observer who saw a Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary on Cholsey Marsh in June. It was roughly around the time of the Marsh Fritillary sighting. As it is a very unlikely sighting in these parts we wonder if someone locally is breeding Fritillaries and releasing them?

 Yellowhammer

 Chiffchaff⬍

 Buzzard, Red Kite & Carrion Crow

Hats off to the RSPCA.

Thank you to the guy from the RSPCA who came out today to rescue a 2nd year Great Blackback Gull that was entwined in fishing line down on Portland.

A call was made by a member of the public today regarding a gull tangled in some line and in distress on the east side of the bill.

An RSPCA guy eventually arrived and fortunately the gull had hauled itself out of the sea and onto some rocks. As there was quite a length of line attached he managed to grab hold of the end and effectively reel in the gull.

He brought it back to the observatory where he managed to cut and untangle the line (that fortunately had no hook attached) and free the gull.

The gull felt a little thin so he decided to take it back to the rescue centre to feed it up for a day or two before bringing it back to release it.

A job well done, thank you RSPCA.

All pics courtesy of Loren.