Lollingdon

Sunny, 16°, light S.

Lollingdon flood fairly quiet today: a Little Egret and c50 Lapwing present. Nearby, a Chiffchaff, Meadow Pipit, 2 Yellowhammer, a Jay and several Fieldfare and Redwing etc.

A Blackcap singing near the Bullshole.

Brian Wyatt found 5 Redpoll along the Bunk yesterday.

Butterflies: Mild weather has seen several Brimstone and Peacock. Both species also noted yesterday. Per MA.

Not holding out much hope for our local ground nesting birds this year. A lot of fields seem to be planted with Rye grass which is harvested roughly every 6 weeks, therefore not giving birds like Lapwing, Corn Bunting, Skylark, Yellow Wagtail etc no time to incubate eggs and fledge young.

Hithercroft & Bunk

Sunshine and showers, 14°, breezy SW.

Hithercroft floods: Little Egret, 3 Shelduck over, Common Snipe, Herring Gull, Lesser Blackback Gull, Black-headed Gull, Chiffchaff - many singing, Reed Bunting and Lapwing.

Bunk area: 7 Chiffchaff, several in song, a Blackcap singing, 3 Yellowhammer, 2 Siskin, a Sparrowhawk, 14 Fieldfare, 1 Redwing, 50+ Starling, a Grey Wagtail, 8 Pied Wagtail, 5 Meadow Pipit, 1 Lapwing, 1 Mute Swan, 32 Lesser Blackback Gull, 7 Black-headed Gull, 2 Herring Gull and 1 Common Gull, etc.

Mammals: Short-tailed Vole, Wood Mouse & Brown Hare.

Amphibians: Smooth Newt (per Bill Nicholls, garden pond).

Butterflies: Brimstone, Small Tortoiseshell and Peacock.

AD, BN & PC.

Shelduck courtesy Alan

Sparrowhawk

Wood Mouse courtesy Bill Nicholls

Sunshine for a change

Sunny, 10°, light S.

A fairly quiet couple of days. Alan found a Wheatear up near Silly Bridge yesterday but little else evident.

Today, Bunk line, Lollingdon and the River covered but again very little happening.

Most of the wintering Gulls have dispersed now and only a couple of Common Gull, a handful of Lesser Blackback Gull and Black-headed Gull and a couple of Herring Gull noted today.

2 Lapwing still in the area and hoping that they may stay and breed as one seen in display flight over the weekend.

A concern is that we have not recorded Bullfinch in the parish this year. Usually 4 sites where we find them but nothing noted yet.

Other species noted: many Chiffchaff, a Raven, Treecreeper and Nuthatch.

Mammals: Brown Hare.

Butterflies: Brimstone and Peacock.

Raven & Peacock courtesy Alan

A Spring like day

Sunshine, 12°, light W.

A Merlin seen today flying low over a stubble field at the top of Westfield road. Per Hugh Pope.

A walk out to Lollingdon today produced, 3 singing Chiffchaff (5 in total), a Little Egret, Little Owl, c20 Meadow Pipit and 2 Raven and a handful of Fieldfare.

20+ Yellowhammer still around the Little Lollingdon area, plus 5 Reed Bunting and a flock of c30 Linnet. Several Yellowhammer and Reed Bunting flycatching from the hedge top.

Bunk line, Little Owl, Meadow Pipit, Grey Wagtail, Linnet, singing Chiffchaff and Goldcrest.

Update: Calls from at least 2 Common Scoter passing overhead moving north east at 20:48.

Mammals: Brown Hare & Roe Deer.  

Several butterfly’s on the wing today with Brimstone, Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell and Comma.

Alan also had a Dark-edged Bee-fly.

Peacock on Holly-leaved Berberis

Comma courtesy Alan

Dark-edged Bee-fly courtesy Alan

Chiffchaff doing its best to hide

Watching me watching you. A smart Roe Buck

Yellowhammer

Reed Bunting

Lollingdon & the Thames

Sunshine, 10°, light NW.

Frosty start with wall to wall sunshine today but still soggy underfoot in a lot of places. A walk out to Lollingdon and Alan along the river.

2, possibly 3 Stonechat present around Lollingdon hill and good numbers of Fieldfare and Redwing in the area.

Meadow Pipit numbers still high but birds widely dispersed and still good numbers of Skylark present and 2 Corn Bunting flew overhead.

A Tawny Owl flushed by a loose dog running where it shouldn’t.

2 Bullfinch, a Chiffchaff and a Grey Heron in the cattle field and 1 or 2 Goldcrest Millennium wood.

2 Water Rail at Cholsey Marsh and a small flock of Siskin feeding on the Alders, plus Grey Wagtail, 1 Kingfisher, Meadow Pipit, 2 Goldcrest, 1 Chiffchaff, Fieldfare and Redwing.

Mammals: Brown Hare and Roe Deer and a possible Water Vole?????

Dragonflies: a Common Darter, Lollingdon and another along the river.

Butterflies: a Peacock near the Millennium Wood and a Red Admiral along the river.

Siskin pics by Alan.

Stonechat & Meadow Pipit

Siskin ↕

Stonechat

Grey Heron

The Birds & The Bee Flies.

Sunny. 10°, moderate breeze ENE.

A day to catch up with a bit of gardening and a nearby Chiffchaff singing regularly and seen foraging around the garden and a couple of Brimstone flew through.

Alan has been out and about with Bella this week end and managed to get some good shots of Birds and Insects.

 Spotted Bee-fly

Dark-edged Bee-fly

Bella

 Peacock

 Little Owl

 Nesting Red Kites

Wheatears

A Merlin in the mix

Mainly sunny, 13°, light SW.

Highlight of today was a male Merlin that zipped through out at Lollingdon. Appeared not to be hunting but still panicked all the birds.

Quite a few Yellowhammer, Pied Wagtail, Meadow Pipit and Linnet scattered around a couple of fields and good numbers of Fieldfare and Redwing about and only 2 Starling noted.

2 Goldcrest and 6 Reed Bunting present on the north side of the hill and the south side was all but deserted.

2 Kestrel, a Sparrowhawk and a Raven seen and 3 Mistle Thrush in the garden trees early morning.

2 late insects seen with a single Common Darter dragonfly and a Peacock butterfly.

Reed Bunting

Fieldfare (courtesy Alan Dawson)

Redwing

Redwing

 Pied Wagtail

 Fieldfare

Meadow Pipit

Peacock

Still waiting!

Hazy sunshine, 8°, light NNE.

Still cool but getting milder and back to a feel of spring today.

A Chiffchaff singing in the meadow on and off all morning and a Peacock butterfly in the garden.

As I was approaching the hill this afternoon, a Weasel ran across the road in front of the car and disappeared into a field, first one I've seen this year.

Still no sign of Wheatear on Lollingdon hill but should turn up soon.

A movement of Fieldfare and Starling today with c500 of the former flying overhead north and several flocks of the latter also flying north c400.

A Sparrowhawk flew over south, the lone Starling still out feeding amongst the sheep flock and several Pied Wagtail and Meadow Pipit still present.

 

Hazy (polluted) Day

Very hazy, 16º, light NE.

South East England is currently suffering from air pollution and this is rated at 7 and is composed of local and continental pollution and also Saharan dust. It should all clear by tomorrow, 4th April.

Lollingdon hill was rather quiet, a few Meadow Pipit, 3 Corn Bunting singing, a couple of Red Kite and Buzzard.

2 Lapwing still in the area, 11 Fieldfare and 2 Redwing also still present, 3 Chiffchaff in song and 4 Yellowhammer.

3 Lesser Blackback Gulls overhead, the flood on the north side of the A417 has dried up, the flood to the south had 6 Lesser Blackback Gulls and 2 Mallards on.
 

There was a Little Egret on the flood opposite brook house on Wallingford road this evening with a Grey Heron and 2 Canada Geese (per MP).

Peacock & Small Tortoiseshell butterflies noted, along with Oil Beetles burrowing, many Bees and a couple of Bee Flies.

First Hedgehog of the year in the garden tonight and the Tawny Owls vocal again.

 Yellowhammer

 Chiffchaff singing high in the canopy

 Stock Dove nest prospecting in the garden

 Oil Beetle (courtesy Loren)

 Bee Fly (courtesy Loren) 

Little Egret (courtesy Michael Pocock)

Flutterers, Flappers and Gliders

Sunny, 16º, light S.

A beautiful sunny day with a mild breeze saw plenty of butterflies and bees on the wing both in the garden and on Lollingdon hill. A single Comma, several Peacock and double figures of Brimstone and Small Tortoiseshell in total.

Birdwise there were plenty of Buzzards in the air today, scanning from Lollingdon hill saw 11 Buzzard in the air with 3 over the hill itself, also 5 Red Kite, a Kestrel and a Sparrowhawk. Quite a few Rook and Jackdaw flying back and forth over the hill and an almost constant chorus of Skylarks.

The anticipation of summer migrants arriving on the hill was a little presumptuous as the first Wheatear only arrived on Portland this morning, hopefully they will be arriving soon.

Still a few winterers around with Redwing (6) and Fieldfare (20+) seen and still quite a few Lesser Blackback Gulls still on the floods.

A ♀ Great-spotted Woodpecker noted on the north side of the hill.

♀ Blackcap still visiting the garden and feeding on the apples.

Small Tortoiseshells

Rook

Fieldfare

Robin (Loren)

Buzzard