Lollingdon

Overcast and rain, 10°, light SE.

A walk out to the flooded area at Lollingdon today proved rather wet.

Having said that the birds were not too bad.

As a flock of Tits passed through, I heard a call I’ve not heard for a while and confirmed it when a Marsh Tit popped up and soon moved on along the hedgerow with the rest of the flock. I couldn’t follow as the water was too deep along the field edge. First record in 5 years. Also a Chiffchaff with the flock.

The flood was deserted but I had an Oystercatcher fly over and there were 2 Little Egret and 3 Grey Heron nearby. A distant flock of c100 Lapwing in the air again and the usual Fieldfare and Redwing.

A Chiffchaff, a Blackcap and a couple of Goldcrest in the Bullshole area and 20+ Pied Wagtail on the football field.

8 Song Thrush heard singing on the walk out. Great to hear them. In the 90’s when we took part in a bird race, we had a job to find a Song Thrush. So good they have made a comeback over the last 20 or so years.

Yesterday: A male Merlin and Jack Snipe at Hithercroft along with c. 50 Common Snipe and 2 Peregrine. Per Connor Pimm. Not sure if they were seen in or close to the Parish boundary but worth a mention. The 2 Peregrine were probably the same 2 that I saw out by the Lees last week and maybe the 2 males from last years nest out at South Stoke?

Mammals: Roe Deer (3 Bucks).

Thrushes

Overcast, 11°, light SW.

Michael Pocock on Lollingdon Hill yesterday. “Nice to see the pair of Stonechat at Lollingdon this morning. Also a couple of Yellowhammer, 14 Golden Plover overhead and lots of “Winter Thrushes” (mostly Fieldfare). The highlight for me was 5 migrating Stock Dove. They come in at height from the Chilterns and I watched them head right over the downs and then orientate to head up one of the valleys. Soon to be in Iberia?”

Alan headed along the river today: Redwing and Fieldfare in abundance, plus Blackbird, Song Thrush in good numbers. Cetti’s Warbler, Kingfisher, Reed Bunting, Meadow Pipit, Jay, a singing Mistle Thrush, Treecreeper, Chiffchaff, Nuthatch and a Marsh Tit heard.

I took a brief walk along the Bunk/Green lane area: “Winter Thrushes” in good numbers with several hundred Redwing, approx. 100 Fieldfare plus Blackbird and Song Thrush in good numbers.

Also a Raven heard, a Grey Heron, Grey Wagtail, Jay, and Yellowhammer, 2 Herring Gull plus the usuals.

Fieldfare courtesy Alan

Redwing

Blackbird courtesy Alan ↕

Marsh Tit

Almost constant rain, 6°, light S.

A quick visit to Wallingford this morning and stopped off at Bow Bridge on the way back. Shortly after arriving I heard a commotion in the trees with Long-tailed Tit alarm calls as well as others so I guessed there may have been a Sparrowhawk around.

I decided to scan thru the flock that was estimated about 40 strong in total and came across a Marsh Tit flitting about in the trees. There may have been a second one but cannot be sure.

Also with the flock were Blue Tit, Great Tit, Nuthatch, Treecreeper and a single Chiffchaff.

After a time they moved deeper into the wood and I lost sight of them.

Marsh Tit is a very scarce visitor in Cholsey these days from across the river. They used to breed in the 80’s at Bow Bridge but not any more unfortunately.

As far as I am aware this is the first record since one in 2016.

A look along the river afterwards found several Cormorant, a Little Grebe and a Kingfisher.

Alan noted a Barn Owl late afternoon north east of the village.

Didn’t get a photo of the Marsh Tit today but have included one taken last year at the Warburg reserve.

Fungi foray

Cloudy, 10°, light N.

A visit for Loren and myself to the Warburg Nature Reserve today. Mainly looking for Fungi but also whatever else is on show.

Quite a lot of Fungi found and with 300+ photos taken between us it will take a while to process and identify the species so they will be in a posting for another day.

However we did find our 2 target species of Fly Agaric and Magpie Inkcap.

As for the birds: 2 Raven, 60+ Redwing, several Bullfinch, 1 Siskin, 3+ Marsh Tit, several Nuthatch and 6+Jay were birds of note.

Photos courtesy Loren Chaplin.

 Magpie Inkcap ↕

 Fly Agaric ↕

Common Puffball

Marsh Tit (photo by me)

Lollingdon 25th Sep

Sunny, 16°, light NW.

A Stonechat on the hill today not seen first time around but appeared later in the afternoon, a Wheatear in fields to the west and 5 Yellowhammer on the hill.

50+ Hirundines over with a 50/50 mix of Swallow and House Martin and a passage of Pied Wagtail (20) and Meadow Pipit (42) also 2 Siskin flew over, all moving south.

4 Sparrowhawk sightings of at least 3 birds and quite a few Buzzard in the air today.

The wooded side had 2 flocks of Tits pass through, the first around 20 birds and the second of around 50. The majority of birds were as usual Long-tailed Tit with several Great and Blue Tit. However the second had 3+ Coal Tit and at least 1 Marsh Tit and both flocks had Goldcrest and Chiffchaff with them. A total of 14 Chiffchaff around the hill today.

A walk out to the Lees proved rather fruitless with just a few Skylark, Reed Bunting and Yellowhammer noted.

2 Nuthatch, 2 Coal Tit and a Chiffchaff around the garden today.

Mammals: Roe Deer, Muntjac Deer and Red Fox.

Dragonflies: Southern Hawker and Common Darter.

Butterflies: 1 Brimstone, Large White, Small White, Small Tortoiseshell, 2 Red Admiral and Comma.

Butterflies & Birds

Sunny, 15º, yes 15º, a T-shirt day, light S!

A good day weather wise and several species of butterfly on the wing, Brimstone, Peacock and Comma all noted, first butterflies of this year also a couple of Buff-tailed Bumble Bee seen.

Back to the birds, I walked along the Bunk line to Winterbrook, ten Lapwing in the meadows there, the last breeding site in Cholsey for them, also a few Meadow Pipit, Skylark and Yellowhammer.

I got to the river at Bradford Brook and managed to walk the length of the Thames path for the first time this year, still a bit soggy in places but mainly dry (rain due tomorrow though).

A  ♂ Shoveler and a couple of Tufted Duck on Carmel lake a couple of Nuthatch in the gardens near Bow Bridge and one maybe two Marsh Tit in Bow wood along with a couple of Long-tailed Tit also both Green and Great-spotted Woodpecker.

Just one Fieldfare seen today.

A good day for the larger Raptors a lot of high altitude interplay between Buzzards and Red Kites today and a few Kestrel and Sparrowhawk seen, also some higher altitude movement of Gulls noted.

Cholsey marsh is still quite wet and a few Teal and Common Snipe present, two Kingfisher nearby and a couple of Great Crested Grebe on the river.

A pair of Mallard in the garden this evening and a pair of Moorhen this morning and a Goldcrest singing nearby.

Some news from the South Moreton floods, a Meditteranean Gull recently and a Black-tailed Godwit, Dunlin, approx eight hundred Lapwing, six hundred Golden Plover and one hundred and twenty Teal today. Thanks to Bob Wyatt for the info.

 

Comma

One thing that struck me today was the appalling amount of rubbish that has been left after the flooding on the marsh, a lot of plastic that has drifted down but a lot that has been dumped by visitors and fisherman, empty bottles of spirits and beer, beer cans, coke cans, carrier bags, polystyrene cups, the ubiquitous plastic bottles and discarded fishing line and tackle, I’m sorry to say! I even heard the other day of a fridge/freezer seen floating down the river. Please take it with you and don’t dump it in our country side!

Some of what was there I managed to gather in one spot and arrange for it to be collected and disposed of by the site manager at Cholsey Meadows. Thanks.

There has also been some illegal fishing taking place on that stretch, if noted please call the Environment Agency on 0800807060.

Little Wittenham

Sunny, 8º, little wind.

The countryside slowly drying out you would think, Wittenham Wood was very soggy along the tracks. The Thames was within the banks but fast running at Day’s Lock and the scrape area was over 50% water.

Very little seen, the scrape held a hundred plus Black-headed Gull and a few Common Gull.

There was a large Tit flock in the area around the old Lock Keepers house and one possibly two Marsh Tit with the flock, a ♂ Sparrowhawk flew through and there were alarm calls all over maybe around forty birds in the flock, Great, Blue and Long-tailed Tit.
A few Siskin and Goldfinch flyovers and two Goosander (♂ & ♀) on the river.

Wittenham Wood was very quiet just the occasional Great-spotted Woodpecker drumming but very little else.