Getting cooler

Mostly cloudy, 22°, light SW.

Thankfully we have had some rain over the past week, still need more.

Not been out walking for a week or so due to tweaking my Achilles tendon and making it painful to walk.

Decided to put the Trailcam out to see what turns up in the garden.

Have been doing a spot of sky watching in the mid-evening and have been seeing good numbers of House Martin moving over and heading south. Today, 75+, yesterday 100+.

Have had a Painted Lady still visiting the garden but the Hummer has not been seen recently

A few video clips from the last few days of the garden trail cam.

Muntjac family

Sunny periods and showers, 9°, light SSE.

A family (3) of Muntjac visited the garden today.

A warm one

Sunny, 27°, fresh SSE.

Fairly quiet out today. singles of Common Redstart, Whinchat and Wheatear out at Lollingdon and 3 Swallow over. Nearby, 3 Blackcap, 2 Common Whitethroat, several Chiffchaff and a Tit flock with Coal Tit and Nuthatch present.

50+ House Martin and a Yellow Wagtail over Church Road.

Mammals: Brown Hare.

Dragonflies: Common Darter.

Butterflies: very few. Several Whites, Red Admiral, Peacock, Speckled Wood and Meadow Brown.

A regular garden visitor

Cooler

Overcast, 19°, breezy NNE.

2 Common Redstart still out at Lollingdon, a Lesser Whitethroat, 2 Common Whitethroat, 3 Blackcap and an unexpected fly-by of a Greenshank and c60 Swallow over.

Nearby a couple of Yellowhammer, c100 Linnet and good numbers of Chiffchaff.

A handful of House Martin still present in the Church Road area and appear to be feeding young still and 2 Swift over.

A Peregrine seen from the garden yesterday and several Swift passing over in the last few days.

Mammals: Hedgehog, Muntjac and Common Pipistrelle regular in garden.

Dragonflies: A Southern Hawker on the allotment yesterday.

Butterflies: very few, Small White, Speckled Wood, a Gatekeeper and a few Meadow Brown.

Moths: Hummingbird Hawk in garden.

Wheatears again

Sunshine and showers, 14°, breezy SSW.

I covered Lollingdon today whilst Alan covered the Bunk, River and Lollingdon Hill.

4 Wheatear (3m & 1f) still present at Lollingdon. Whether these are the same birds as in previous days?

Nearby I only saw 1 Fieldfare whereas Alan had a flock of several hundred Fieldfare, Redwing and Starling along the Bunk.

Good numbers of Chiffchaff also present with 6 singing birds on the walk out to Lollingdon and Alan had 10+ along the Bunk.

Other birds noted: 1 Goldcrest, 3 Mistle Thrush, 3 Great-spotted Woodpecker, Little Owl and 1 Sand Martin.

River area, very quiet.

Mammals: Muntjac in the garden.

Pics 4, 5 & 6 courtesy Alan

Wheatears

Muntjac

Chilly start to December

Sunny, 5°, light WNW.

Another sunny day with good frost early on.

Lollingdon hill quite busy today with 100+ Fieldfare, several Redwing, Blackbird, Song Thrush and Mistle Thrush. Several Meadow Pipit, Linnet and a small flock of Starling. A female Sparrowhawk flew south.

At least 3 Goldcrest on the north side of the hill.

A similar scene at Cholsey Church but fewer numbers and a male Sparrowhawk flew through.

Golden Plover heard calling after dark over Church road.

A Chiffchaff present on Cholsey Marsh, Water Rail heard and 3 Common Snipe over. Per Alan Dawson.

Mammals: Roe Deer, Muntjac Deer and Brown Hare.

Butterflies: a late Red Admiral flow south over the hill.

 Chiffchaff (courtesy Alan Dawson)

Fieldfare & Starling

Muntjac Deer

Breezy day

Sunny with a moderate breeze, 16°, fresh SW.

A wet day yesterday and overnight but the rain sorely needed.

A visit of a Muntjac Deer racing around the garden yesterday. Too fast to get any decent pics, just managed a couple of it disappearing into undergrowth.

The Great-spotted Woodpecker family have been visiting regularly over the last few days with 2 parents and 2 young.

Quiet again

Mainly cloudy with sunny spells, 13°, light ESE.

Fairly quiet on the hill and surrounds today, 2 Lesser Whitethroat and a Willow Warbler. The usual Blackcap, Common Whitethroat and Chiffchaff, Corn Bunting and Yellowhammer present and a couple of Raven again in the area.

A Yellow Wagtail near Westfield road. Per Alan Dawson.

Mammals: Roe Deer and Muntjac Deer.

Reps: Common Lizard.

Butterflies: Brimstone, Orange Tip, Holly Blue, Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock and Speckled Wood.

Common Lizard

Yellow Wagtail (courtesy Alan Dawson)

Muntjac Deer

Blackcap

Before the rain & snow

Cloudy, 3°, light S.

2 Stonechat still present on the hill and 2 Raven flew south and approx. an hour later 2 flew north (possibly same 2).

A Yellow-legged Gull in field out at Lollingdon with 6 Lesser Blackback Gull.

Quite a few Fieldfare and Redwing around and several Reed Bunting, Yellowhammer, Pied Wagtail and Meadow Pipit.

2 Kestrel flew west over the hill and being harried by a Red Kite.

A Little Egret also seen out at Lollingdon.

Have noticed a lot of Jackdaw activity around our end of the village with several groups exploring chimney stacks on houses.

A Muntjac Deer feeding next to the garden this afternoon.

 Stonechat

 Raven

 Little Egret

Muntjac Deer

Not much to see

Sunny, 10°, light to breezy NNE.

Woefully quiet out at Lollingdon today with very few winter thrushes around, no more than 100 Fieldfare and a handful of Redwing.

A Goldcrest and a Great-spotted Woodpecker, 2 Meadow Pipit and 3 Pied Wagtail noted.

The Brambling still present in a garden in Cholsey.

A Touch of Frost!

Sunny, 2º, light SW, a chilly day after a heavy overnight frost and temp dropped to -7º the night before!

A visit to Lollingdon this afternoon with thrushes feeding in the fields and scattered all around the area.

c200 Fieldfare, c100 Redwing, c60 Blackbird, 20+ Song Thrush, 2 Mistle Thrush and 80 Starling.

A Jack Snipe flushed from a field and disappeared in usual Jack Snipe fashion, 10 Lapwing flew north over the hill and a ♀ Sparrowhawk causing panic amongst the 200 or so Linnet on the hill.

6 Corn Bunting, 18 Meadow Pipit, 2 Pied Wagtail, 2 Buzzard and 3 Red Kite also noted.

A Muntjac Deer seen.

8 Blackbirds frequenting the garden today along with 5 Mallard, 3 Moorhen, 2 Stock Dove, 2 Collared Dove, at least 10 Wood Pigeon, 1 Blackcap, 2 Carrion Crow, a few Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, 1 Robin, 2 Wren, 2 Dunnock, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, a few Blue Tit and Great Tit, 3 Long-tailed Tit and a Pheasant walked past the garden but did not enter.

♀ Blackcap and a Sparrowhawk in TW’s garden today (TW, JL).

 Song Thrush

Redwing

Linnet

 Lapwing

 Blackbird & Chaffinch in the garden (Loren)

Moorhen

Not the usual garden day visitor

Overcast, rain, 10º, light wind.

Not much time for birding today and a brief visit to Lollingdon hill produced nothing except for the singing Corn Buntings.

A Wheatear on Cholsey hill and a couple of Corn Bunting again.

Singing Goldcrest and Coal Tit at the JR in Oxford.

A surprise daytime visit of a Muntjac Deer in the garden having a nibble of a favourite food, Tulips!

The two unringed Blackcap still visiting and a Carrion Crow hassling the Rookery by Marymead.

Unexpected garden visitors.

Cloudy, 4º, light NNW, cooler, back to winter next week with snow forecast.

A couple of unexpected visitors to the garden today, two cock Pheasants appeared early afternoon and stayed for the rest of the day and a Rabbit made a brief appearance. Pheasant has been seen in the adjacent meadow before but not in the garden and the Rabbit is a first; the Rabbit now makes twelve mammal species seen in or from the garden.

Other birds in the garden today were several Lesser Redpoll briefly, two Stock Dove, a Song Thrush and another brief visit from a ♀ Blackcap, ten plus Goldfinch and over a dozen Chaffinch and there were two Magpie present in the front garden.

An adult ♀ and a juvenile ♀ Muntjac Deer in the garden again this evening, the juv being about one third smaller and paler (esp on the nape and upper back) than the adult.

Some news from the South Moreton floods recently were of up to one hundred Common Snipe and a single Jack Snipe seen, a Ruff and a Dunlin also noted and again up to a thousand Lapwing and similar numbers for Golden Plover.

Also four Raven (two pairs) in what could have been a territorial dispute in Cholsey recently.

Thanks to Michael Pocock, Tony Williams and Geoff Wyatt for information.

                                  Pheasants

                                  Song Thrush

Lollingdon

Sunny, 8º, no wind, a later start today and some nice sunshine though a bit cooler and temperatures dropping below zero tonight.

A walk out to Lollingdon hill and back, still muddy but floods subsiding, a lot of ditch clearing and hedge cutting recently along the field margins.

A Kingfisher along one of the cleared ditches probably looking for any larvae etc that may have been exposed!

A Grey Heron on one of the flooded fields, several Pied Wagtail present and both Green and Great-spotted Woodpecker heard.

Lollingdon Hill was quite busy with two Raven over, at least one Jay present, twelve plus Long-tailed Tit foraging in the Hawthorns on the south side.

The south slope held forty Starling, one hundred plus Fieldfare, twenty Redwing, two Mistle Thrush, a Song Thrush, five Meadow Pipit, five Corn Bunting (including one in song), thirteen Pied Wagtail, five Yellowhammer and three Goldfinch. Why so many birds on the south slope I am not sure, maybe the Sheep being present and also insects around had attracted the birds.

In addition, a flock of fifty Linnet on the top field and two Lapwing flew over.

At one point everything on the south side of the hill scattered, they saw something that I did not I scanned the area for around five minutes but saw nothing untoward. The reaction of the birds indicated something like a Merlin, Peregrine or Sparrowhawk had been seen.

A couple of Roe Deer noted.

A flock of over five hundred Lapwing seen over Haddon Hill whilst driving back from Didcot to Wallingford this afternoon and two Grey Heron in the flooded fields at South Moreton at dusk.

The ♀ Muntjac Deer in the garden again this evening and a Treecreeper and Great-spotted Woodpecker present during the day.

                                   Redwing

                      Buck Roe Deer basking in some sunshine

                                   Pied Wagtail

                                  Muntjac in garden again

                         Starling, Fieldfare and a Yellowhammer

Deer-Deer

A ♂ & ♀  Muntjac Deer in the garden tonight.

My first bird of the year was a Robin that was singing at 00:30  01/01/2013 in Wantage, Oxfordshire.

 

Tonight’s Moon, 1^st Jan 2013