Bunk again

Hazy sunshine, 16°, light SE.

Bunk area was fairly quiet today. 3 Chiffchaff at CSW, 2 in song, 2 Goldcrest, a Grey Heron, Yellowhammer, 2 Herring Gull and 20+ Fieldfare and 6 Redwing.

Gravel pit was a bit more active with 4 Shelduck, 26 Shoveler, 14 Tufted Duck, 4 Gadwall, a Green Sandpiper, 4 Lapwing, a Tawny Owl, and Chiffchaff and Blackcap. Again around 300 Gulls.

Butterflies: numbers of Brimstone and Peacock.

Bunk

Overcast with some light drizzly rain, 12°, light SW.

Gravel Pit: A Green Sandpiper, a single Lapwing, 22 Shoveler, 3 Tufted Duck and a Little Grebe, plus a Chiffchaff nearby.

Elsewhere along the Bunk line, at least 2 Chiffchaff at CSW with one in song, a Blackcap, 100+ Fieldfare and c20 Redwing, several Skylark in song and 2 Herring Gull.

Lollingdon

Sunny periods, 16°, light ENE.

Another fairly quiet one out at Lollingdon today:

3 Common Snipe and a Green Sandpiper on partially flooded fields, c20 Meadow Pipit, 5 Yellowhammer, 2 Reed Bunting, 3 Chiffchaff, a Goldcrest and large flock of c400 birds, comprising Fieldfare, Redwing and Starling.

Mammals: Brown Hare.

Dragonflies: 3 Common Darter.

Butterflies: Holly Blue & Peacock. Per RB.

Quiet

Sunny periods, 15°, light NNW.

Pretty quiet along the Bunk area today. A Green Sandpiper flew from the gravel pit area, a Bullfinch nearby, 4 Swallow over and 2 Yellowhammer and 5 Chiffchaff elsewhere.

Dragonflies: Southern and Migrant Hawker.

Butterflies: Small White, Red Admiral and Speckled Wood.

Insects: European Hornet.

Back to Cholsey

Sunny periods, 20°, breezy W.

Back home after a week in Huddersfield, Yorkshire visiting Loren's family. Didn’t have much time for birding up north so nothing to report other than a singing Willow Warbler on the outskirts of Barnsley. Nothing unusual there but nice to hear.

Out along the Bunk area today with very little change. A Green Sandpiper flushed by RB on Friday from the bottom of his garden along Cholsey Brook.

Some young Swallow on the wing today, a few Sand and House Martin and the odd Swift over. Yellowhammer, Common Whitethroat and Chiffchaff still singing and 2 Herring Gull in the usual area but little else of note.

Dragonflies: Banded Demoiselle and Common Blue Damsel.

Butterflies: Large Skipper, Small Skipper, Large White, Small White, Common Blue, Red Admiral, Comma, Speckled Wood, Marbled White, Meadow Brown and Ringlet.

Moths: Scarlet Tiger in garden.

Another day

Sunny, 16°, light N.

Usual areas covered again today:

Common Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper, Little Ringed Plover, 8 Lapwing, 9 Tufted Duck, a Gadwall, 2 Little Grebe, 8+ Swallow, 2 Sand Martin, 1 House Martin, Yellow Wagtail, Grey Wagtail, 2 Meadow Pipit, a single Redwing, Blackcap, Cetti’s Warbler and a Sparrowhawk.

Mammals: unfortunately a dead Otter found by Alan along the river bank today.

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

AD & PC.

Common Sandpiper courtesy Alan

Lapwing courtesy Alan

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

Weather?

Sunny then clouding over, 18°, breezy E.

Everywhere a little quiet at the moment. Is the weather playing a part?

Green Sandpiper, a Little Ringed Plover, 2 Oystercatcher and 6 Lapwing were the waders noted today. 6 Tufted Duck and 2 Teal and a few Blackcap in song, a Cetti’s Warbler, Water Rail, Yellowhammer, etc.

Mammals: Brown Hare.

Butterflies: Brimstone, Green-veined White and Peacock.

AD & PC.

Green Sandpiper courtesy Alan

A bit of a mix

Sunny, 16°, breezy ENE.

Lollingdon, River and Bunk:

Wheatear, 2 Swallow, a Green Sandpiper, a Little Ringed Plover, Little Egret, 16 Shoveler, 6 Tufted Duck, 2 Teal, 2 Little Grebe, a Grey Heron, Grey Wagtail, 4 Common Gull, 2 Cetti’s Warbler and 2 Redwing.

AD & PC.

Lollingdon Floods

Sunshiny day, 9°, light NE.

Lollingdon: Green Sandpiper, Dunlin, 60+ Lapwing, 14 Shoveler, 2 Raven, Chiffchaff, Reed Bunting, 4 Yellowhammer, c20 Redwing and a large number of gulls in the distance.

Sparrowhawk (m), 2 Coal Tit, 2 Nuthatch in garden and 2 Tawny Owl nearby.

Mammals: Brown Hare.

Butterflies: Red Admiral.

AD & PC.

Dunlin with Lapwing courtesy Alan

Red Admiral

Shoveler

Reed Bunting

Lapwing

Mixed bag

Overcast with rain showers later, 16°, light SSE.

A bit of a mixed bag today.

Alan found 6 Stonechat between the main line railway and the Long Ditch this afternoon, a Common Snipe, Kingfisher and a Chiffchaff.

Also 80 Golden Plover on Cholsey Hill this morning and 2 Grey Wagtail.

Bunk: a single Swallow flew through, 2 Chiffchaff, a Coot, Green Sandpiper, 2 Raven, a Tawny Owl being mobbed by 2 Jay, 2 Yellowhammer, c20 Pied Wagtail, c100 Meadow Pipit, 26 Skylark and approx. 100+ Redwing, scattered widely along the area.

Forgot to mention 10 Teal on the flood by the Wallingford Road yesterday. Per Alan.

Dragonflies: Common Darter.

AD & PC.

Cholsey

Cloudy with prolonged sunny spells, 15°, light SW.

Bunk, Lollingdon and River covered in the last 2 days.

Appears to have been a big influx of Chiffchaff over the last couple of days as they are all over. A Willow Warbler also heard singing today out at Lollingdon.

A few waders also turned up today with a Little Ringed Plover, Green Sandpiper and an Oystercatcher.

A Blackcap in song, 4 Siskin, 8 Lapwing, 3 Grey Heron, several Pied Wagtail and Meadow Pipit, Corn Bunting, Reed Bunting, Yellowhammer and a small flock of Redwing.

We’ve had a male Pheasant resident in the garden for approx. 2 months now. He hangs around under the feeders to pick up anything that drops to the ground and out muscles the Squirrels.

Mammals: Brown Hare.

Butterflies: Brimstone, Peacock and Comma.

AD & PC.

Little Ringed Plover courtesy Alan

Little Ringed Plover

Siskin courtesy Alan

1st Wheatears arrive

Mainly cloudy, 14°, light SSW.

4 good birds found by Alan today. A Wheatear on Lollingdon Hill and a Curlew and Green Sandpiper along the Bunk area and a Peregrine seen.

A Wheatear also found on Saturday an Lollingdon Hill. Per Michael Pocock.

Butterflies: 2 Brimstone on the allotments yesterday.

Green Sandpiper courtesy Alan

Wheatear courtesy Alan

Brimstone

Bunk

Mainly cloudy, 11°, light SSW.

Bunk area: 2 Mute Swan, 102 Greylag Geese, Green Sandpiper, 18 Shoveler, 14 Tufted Duck, 250+ flock of Fieldfare, Redwing & Starling, Raven, Chiffchaff, 3 Pied Wagtail and 2 Yellowhammer.

A Mistle Thrush and 2 Song Thrush singing.

AD & PC.

Fieldfare, Redwing & Starling ↕

Peregrine from yesterday courtesy Alan

A break in the weather

Light to heavy rain showers, 10°, light to breezy SW.

My first time out this year as the weather has been rather inclement with several storms passing through. Waited in this morning for the weather to clear. Very muddy underfoot and a lot of flood areas around. Alan also out and we covered the Bunk line and the river areas.

A few species of note: 3 Goose Species, Teal, Great Crested Grebe, 2 Little Grebe, 4 Grey Heron, Sparrowhawk, Cormorant, Green Sandpiper, Kingfisher, 30+ Pied Wagtail, 200+ Fieldfare, c50 Redwing, 2 Mistle Thrush (1 in song), Chiffchaff, Goldcrest, Treecreeper, Raven, 200+ Starling and 6 Yellowhammer.

63 species so far this year.

Sparrowhawk courtesy Alan

A Fieldfare with an eye condition. not sure what it is? Possibly Avian Pox. Photo courtesy Alan.

Not a lot

Some sunshine after the rain, 10°, light SW.

Both out after the rain along the Bunk line. Not a lot around at the moment.

A Green Sandpiper was a nice find by Alan but one we could expect this time of year.

Plenty of Fieldfare and Redwing, a single high flying Cormorant, several Yellowhammer, Meadow Pipit and Pied Wagtail, 2 Grey Wagtail, 2 Grey Heron, single Chiffchaff and a couple of Raven etc.

Chiffchaff

Stonechat

Mainly cloudy, 18°, freshening SW.

A Green Sandpiper on a flood beside Wallingford Road early morning, then flew off. Per Michael Pocock.

Bunk Line this morning: another good passage of Hirundines, mainly House Martin this time with 25% Swallow. Approx. 200 birds.

A Stonechat (same bird Alan found Monday), 9 Chiffchaff, a Kingfisher, 3 Grey Heron, 19 Skylark (one flock), 40+ Meadow Pipit, 1 Yellow Wagtail, 1 Grey Wagtail, 1 Kestrel, 2 Raven, a Green Woodpecker and 5 species of Finch including at least 1 Siskin heard overhead.

Alan along the river: 2 Common Sandpiper flying upstream, several Chiffchaff and numbers of Swallow and House Martin.

Dragonflies: Common Darter.

Butterflies: Small White, Red Admiral, Peacock & Speckled Wood.

A few different aspects of the Stonechat.

Great White

Sunny at first then clouding up, 12°, light NW.

An early morning walk along the Bunk line today:

I had a Little Egret fly over but only seen briefly thru the tree tops. Approx. an hour later I saw another presumed Little Egret rise up over a hedgerow and head off north towards the Wallingford area. This one was in view a little longer and although fairly high and distant and flying away. I could either take some pics or look at it thru my binoculars. I chose the former and managed a few shots before it disappeared over the tree line. It wasn’t until I checked the pics on the computer, I realised it was a Great Egret. The second record for Cholsey.

The rest: c40 Canada Geese and 2 Egyptian Geese on a stubble field, nearby 2 Common Sandpiper and a Green Sandpiper, 1 Little Egret, 2+ Raven, 2 Jay, 3 Herring Gull, 7 Lesser Blackback Gull, 11 Yellow Wagtail, 1 Common Whitethroat, 6 Blackcap, 10+ Chiffchaff, 7 House Martin and 100+ Swallow.

Mammals: Brown Hare & Red Fox.

Butterflies: just the one Small White.

Lollingdon, Bunk & Thames.

A few sunny spells, 14°, fresh E.

Usual areas covered today: 2 Little Egret, 3 Green Sandpiper, Lapwing, 4 Black-headed Gull, Mandarin Duck, a Sparrowhawk going for a Mistle Thrush unsuccessfully, 1 pos 2 Fieldfare, 1-2 Yellow Wagtail, 5-6 Swallow, 2 Wheatear, Common Whitethroat, several Blackcap, a Garden Warbler, several Sedge Warbler, Reed Bunting, Yellowhammer & Corn Bunting.

A Common Sandpiper earlier in week along the river. Per PR.

Mammals: Brown Hare.

Butterflies: Orange Tip, Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock & Speckled Wood.

3 Green Sandpipers on the floods at Lollingdon courtesy Alan ↕

Black-headed Gull, 1 of 4 on the flood

Mandarin Duck with Mallards on the flood courtesy Alan ↕

Wheatear