Bunk

Sunny spells, 20°, light NNW.

Bunk area:

A bit of a naff day with very little seen. 10+ Chiffchaff, 2 Swallow, 2 House Martin, a single Swift, a couple of Common Whitethroat and Blackcap, a Sparrowhawk, 2 Grey Heron etc.

Dragonflies: Southern Hawker and Migrant Hawker.

Butterflies: Few on the wing: Large White, Small White, Common Blue, Red Admiral, Peacock, Speckled Wood, Gatekeeper and Meadow Brown.

Crossing the bridge over Cholsey brook, I caught a movement just underneath me and noticed this Heron trying to catch something. As it pulled back it had caught a fish. It was also hemmed into the brook by overhanging branches and quite close, it was unable to fly off, so it just walked behind some branches. It was so close I did not have the time to switch to close focus before it went out of sight. Hence the out of focus image.

Cholsey Hill

Sunny spells, 16°, breezy SSE.

3 Stonechat to the south west of Cholsey Hill and another south of the Lees.

Good numbers of Meadow Pipit and Skylark in the area and hundreds of Wood Pigeon.

[There appears to have been a mass movement of Wood Pigeon lately with an estimated 150000+ seen moving off from Portland, Dorset, yesterday.]

c50 Golden Plover on Cholsey Hill and c50 Lapwing over. Alan also noted a Little Egret this morning.

Mammals: Roe Deer.

Dragonflies: Migrant Hawker and Common Darter.

Butterflies: Brimstone.

AD & PC.

Stonechat

Male Stonechat

Female Stonechat courtesy Alan

Lapwing courtesy Alan

Roe Deer

Rain and Shine

Rain clearing, then sunny spells, 13°, breezy NNW.

Still a good passage of Hirundines passing through over the Bunk area, with c250 Swallow, 80+ House Martin and 60+ Sand Martin.

200+ Lesser Blackback Gull and a few Black-headed Gull loafing in fields, a Sparrowhawk, 20+ Pied Wagtail, 4 Yellow Wagtail, 1 Grey Wagtail, 20+ Meadow Pipit, 10+ Chiffchaff (incl 1 in song) and a Stonechat. Plus a Peregrine along Westfield Road.

The sun made a show around 14:00 and a few insects appeared.

Dragonflies: a single Common Blue Damselfly, a Migrant Hawker and Common Darter.

Butterflies: 2 Speckled Wood.

AD & PC.

A few of the Swallow hawking over flooded fields

The Stonechat (above PC, below AD)

Lesser Blackback Gull

Speckled Wood

A few Dragons

 Photos courtesy Alan

Migrant Hawker

Black-tailed Skimmer

River & Meadows

Mainly sunny, 15°, light SSW.

River/Meadows. Per Alan.

Reed Bunting, Chiffchaff, Grey Wagtail, Usual Geese, Pied Wagtail, Redwing and Fieldfare.

Dragonflies: Willow Emerald, Migrant Hawker, Common Darter and Southern Hawker.

Butterflies: Small White and Red Admiral.

Reed Bunting courtesy Alan

Willow Emerald

Bunk Line

Sunny periods, 20°, light NNW.

Per Alan: Bunk Line: Raven, Lesser Blackback Gull, Chiffchaff, Common Whitethroat, Swift, Swallow, House Martin and Reed Bunting.

Dragonflies: Beautiful Demoiselle, Southern Hawker, Migrant Hawker, Emperor, Common Darter, Common Blue Damselfly, Small red-eyed Damselfly.

Butterflies: Gatekeeper, Brimstone, Meadow Brown, Common Blue, Brown Argus, Peacock, Red Admiral, Comma and Small Skipper.

photos courtesy Alan  

Green Woodpecker (juv)

Common Blue

Gatekeeper

House Martin

Common Buzzard

Migrant Hawker

River

Hazy sunshine with rain later, 20°, light SSW.

Per Alan: River area:  

Spotted Flycatcher family still present, Sedge Warbler, Reed Warbler, Kingfisher, Blackcap, Yellow Wagtail, Reed Bunting, Swallow, House Martin and Swift.

Mammals: Red Fox, Brown Hare.

Dragonflies: Emperor, Black-tailed Skimmer, Migrant Hawker, Brown Hawker, Common Darter, Small Red-eyed Damselfly, Common Blue Damselfly, Emerald Damselfly and Southern Hawker.

Butterflies: Painted Lady, Brown Argus, Meadow Brown, Common Blue, Red Admiral, Peacock and Gatekeeper.

Photos courtesy Alan  

Spotted Flycatcher ↕

Green Woodpecker

Brown Hare

Mistle Thrush

Swallow

Bunk Line

Sunny at first then clouding up, 19°, light W.

Bunk Line fairly quiet today, a small passage of c20 Sand Martin passing thru plus several Swallow and Swift and the odd House Martin.

3 Lesser Whitethroat noted along with several Chiffchaff and Yellowhammer plus singles of Common Whitethroat and Blackcap.

A Cormorant high overhead and a couple of Black-headed and Lesser Blackback Gull in the area and both Kestrel and Sparrowhawk hunting.

Dragonflies: Common Blue Damselfly, Southern Hawker and Migrant Hawker (in garden).

Butterflies: Small Skipper, Brimstone, Large White, Small White, Holly Blue, Red Admiral, Comma, Peacock, Marbled White, Speckled Wood, Gatekeeper and Meadow Brown.

Migrant Hawker

Yellowhammer

A mild one

Overcast with later sunny spells, 16°, light SSW.

Unseasonably mild today and relatively little to show for it.

Alan along the river and seemingly quiet. A Mandarin Duck on the river, “Winter Thrushes” evident plus Song Thrush and Mistle Thrush, Grey Wagtail, Chiffchaff and the regulars.

Large numbers of Fieldfare and Redwing along the Bunk today with many coming from the Cholsey Hill area. 500-600 birds noted and 2 Sparrowhawk flew thru.

A Chiffchaff along Green Lane with a roving Tit flock and Fieldfare and Redwing in just about every bush.

A Grey Wagtail in the Church Road area.

Dragonflies: A Migrant Hawker along the river and a Common Darter, Green Lane.

Long-tailed Tit ↕

Great Tit

Shaggy Parasol

Lollingdon

Cloudy with sunny periods and a few rain showers, 15°, breezy SW.

A busy hill and both of us out there at different times today, 4 Stonechat present hawking insects along the fence line and 500+ Fieldfare over. Most flying over heading south towards the downs and some stopped to feed on the Hawthorn berries.

A single, late House Martin flew south east and 2 Raven over.

Good numbers of Meadow Pipit, Skylark, Pied Wagtail, including a possible White Wagtail.

One Wagtail stood out for me as having no discernible black on the head or throat and was a pale looking bird compared to others in the flock.

The flock flew before I could get a photo.

Alan went later to the same site and photographed another bird which appears to be a possible White Wagtail also.

There are no documented records of White Wagtail in Cholsey as far as I am aware. Quite probably overlooked as they are a regular continental migrant thru the UK.

the so called British Pied Wagtail "yarrellii" is a sub-species of White Wagtail "alba".

Addition: Having since consulted with Ian Lewington it is probable that the pic below is a female Pied Wagtail as the plumage detail is not conclusive for a White Wagtail. Often a difficult species to id conclusively in autumn.

2+ Chiffchaff, a Goldcrest, Little Owl, Little Egret, Grey Wagtail, 30+ Redwing, 2 Jay, 2 Kestrel, Sparrowhawk, 14 Yellowhammer and a flock of c40 Linnet and 20+ Chaffinch.

Alan found a Mandarin Duck on the river on the 21st.

Mammals: Brown Hare and Roe Deer.

Dragonflies: Migrant Hawker and Common Darter.

Butterflies: Clouded Yellow (22nd Oct, per Alan).

Fieldfares

Possible "White" Wagtail (Motacilla alba alba) courtesy Alan

Grey Wagtail courtesy Alan

Stonechat

Raven

Mandarin Duck courtesy Alan

We need rain!

Sunny spells, 25°, light SSW.

Very quiet along the Bunk line today and even butterfly numbers have dropped quite considerably since the hot spell recently.

everywhere turning to various shades of brown due to lack of rainfall.  

A few Chiffchaff, Common Whitethroat, Linnet, Yellowhammer and the odd Jay around but not much else to speak of and very much the same along the River/Marsh area.

Mammals: Red Fox.

Dragonflies: Banded Demoiselle, Migrant Hawker, Southern Hawker, Emperor & Common Darter.

Butterflies: Brimstone, Large White, Small White, Common Blue, Holly Blue, Brown Argus, Red Admiral, Peacock, Comma, Gatekeeper, Ringlet and Meadow Brown.

Paul & Alan.

Gatekeeper

Red Admiral

Common Darter (f)

Common Buzzard courtesy Alan

Migrants

Hazy sunshine, 26°, light SE.

An eventful day with Alan out early along the Bunk Line with a Whinchat, 2 Spotted Flycatcher, a Wheatear, Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Swallow and Yellow Wagtail.

I was out a little later on Lollingdon Hill. 1+ Spotted Flycatcher, 2 Wheatear, 1 Common Redstart, 2 Common Whitethroat, a Blackcap and several Chiffchaff. Nearby a Little Owl and 2 Yellow Wagtail and a Willow Warbler in the Church yard.

Just a handful of Swallow and House Martin over.

A lot of Gulls around today with a couple of fields being worked. Majority were Lesser Blackback Gull with a couple of Herring Gull and several Black-headed Gull.

Dragonflies: Migrant Hawker (AD) & Common Darter.

Butterflies: Brimstone, Large White, Small White, 1 Common Blue, Brown Argus, Red Admiral, 2 Small Tortoiseshell, 2 Comma, several Speckled Wood, 1 Meadow Brown & Small Heath.

Whinchat courtesy Alan

Spotted Flycatcher courtesy Alan

Whinchat courtesy Alan

Wheatear

Angle Shades Moth courtesy Alan