The Hill & The Bunk

Mostly cloudy, 22°, breezy SW.

Arrived on the hill at 07:00 to be greeted by 10 Red Kite, 2 Buzzard and 2 Raven. The Raven were mobbing the BOP’s and after approx. 10 minutes they had cleared the hill of Kites and Buzzards. After approx. another 10 minutes the Ravens then flew off west.

18 Mistle Thrush flew in and settled and begun feeding only to be hassled by a Kestrel that appeared but the Kestrel soon gave up and flew off.

Also present were 2 Common Redstart (m), a Lesser Whitethroat, 2 Common Whitethroat, 5 Blackcap, a Chiffchaff, Jay, Green Woodpecker (4 seen today), Skylark, Yellowhammer, Greenfinch and Linnet and another Raven flew thru.

Nearby 3 Yellow Wagtail, several more Chiffchaff and Yellowhammer and a Little Owl.

The odd Swallow and House Martin feeding overhead but no Swift noted.

Alan covered the Bunk line and found another Common Redstart along with Yellow Wagtail, Grey Wagtail and Common Whitethroat.

Mammals: Brown Hare. Have been told that a number of Roe Deer out between Lollingdon and Aston have been shot and left where they dropped. WHY?

Not a particularly good day for larger insects.

Dragonflies: Banded Demoiselle.

Butterflies: Brimstone, Large White, Small White, Peacock, Speckled Wood, Gatekeeper and Meadow Brown.

Ravens mobbing Red Kite ↕

Brown Hare

Common Redstart

2 of the Mistle Thrush ↕

Common Redstart

A Bee, Beetle & Butterfly

Mainly sunny, 19°, light NNE.

A good day for butterflies with Tony Rayner counting 19 species in his garden today including White-letter Hairstreak.

And Tony Williams has found a bee species that he was not familiar with and neither are we.

Alan has identified it as a Scabious Mining Bee and am inclined to agree. BUT we may be proved wrong?

A Lesser Stag Beetle photographed by Edward Dawson aged 7. A budding wildlife photographer.

Thanks to Tony W for the bee info and Tony R & Alan for the photos and of course Edward.

Scabious Mining Bee

White-letter Hairstreak

Lesser Stag Beetle

News from the West

Aston Tirrold News

Fluked a few nationally scarce inverts in the garden in Aston Tirrold the last few weeks- went to release a "fly" trapped in our utility room and it turned out to be a Currant Clearwing Moth! Unclear where the food plant is, presumably in other gardens. Delighted- I don’t have a moth trap so might have to save up and get one to see what else is around.

Also one evening at dusk a male Stag Beetle crash landed on our shed and got itself stuck on some slippy plastic at the bottom - duly rescued, and hopefully romancing the lady stag beetles - lots of old trees along the stream in the village- need some more age ranges to keep this going though! Also saw (I think) a couple of Crescent Plume moths on Lollingdon south west corner amongst the flower rich area. I wondered about Yarrow Plume but when compared crescent looks most like it. Welcome to defer to someone's better knowledge though if you know this moth! Also spotted Lesser Stag Beetle near Blewburton Hill, and had a Beautiful Demoiselle in the garden.

Also a juvenile Tawny Owl chick was calling on the Lollingdon track track in woodland east of the Astons recreation ground.

Photos and information courtesy V. Gilson.

Stag Beetle

Lesser Stag Beetle

Currant Clearwing Moth

Beautiful Demoiselle

Plume Moth species (Yarrow or Tansy?)

Editor note: I did not realise there are approx 35 species of Plume Moth in the UK.

Near miss!

There has been a record of a Spoonbill recently (28^th May) to the west of Mackney lane in Brightwell, just a few hundred metres from Cholsey. It appears to have been there briefly.

There has been no record of a Spoonbill recorded in Cholsey in recent times. However, they may have been present several centuries ago.

Yesterday a group of 3 Spoonbills turned up near Drayton and another on Port Meadow, Oxford. A rare species for Oxfordshire!

Have not been able to get out recently so not much news.

As for Cholsey, a Lesser Stag Beetle (Dorcus parallelipipedus) was found along Church road on the 6^th and a Lesser Blackback Gull flew south over the village on the same day.

A Great-spotted Woodpecker has been visiting the garden intermittently along with one or two Treecreepers.

Generally the garden has been quieter recently, a pair of Greenfinch and Goldfinch still visiting on a regular basis and two pairs of House Martins have been visiting nest sites regularly but not sure if they are on eggs yet.

2 Hedgehogs regularly in garden.