Not a lot!

 Rain at first then sunny spells, 18°, light SW.

Still very quiet along the Bunk area. The usual Chiffchaff, Blackcap and Common Whitethroat, plus a pair of Lesser Whitethroat.

No view of the gravel pit but a Little Ringed Plover heard calling, a Lesser Blackback Gull dropped in and a Lapwing over.

2-3 Herring Gull at CSW and 5 Black-headed Gull flew south.

Several Swallow, House Martin and Swift noted.

A Peregrine over Crescent Way on Weds. Per James Beaumont and 2 Oystercatcher at the gravel pit on Sat. Per Brian Wyatt.

Butterflies: Large Skipper, Large White, Speckled Wood, Meadow Brown and Small Heath.

Bunk, Gravel pit and a Cuckoo

Sunny spells, 16°, light to breezy SSE.

Bunk and Gravel pit:

A Greenshank appeared briefly and called, only to fly and disappear into one of the pits with no view of it.

In fact most of the birds were doing this today as the viewable pit was being worked and very little on it.

A Mute Swan, 2 Shelduck, 2 Oystercatcher, a Common Sandpiper, 6 Lapwing, a Little Grebe, a Raven over and an ever-dwindling number of Gulls.

A Willow Warbler, 7 Chiffchaff, 5 Blackcap, 2 Common Whitethroat, 5 Swallow and 3 Yellowhammer.

Geoff Wyatt had a pair of Peregrine above Ilges Lane today repeatedly making the “ee-chup” call, a pair bonding call. They were circling and tangling frequently.

James Beaumont found our first Cuckoo of the year on Cholsey Marsh, towards the 4-Arches railway bridge, plus Reed Warbler, Swallow and Kingfisher.  

Mammals: Roe Deer.

Butterflies: Brimstone, Green-veined White, Orange Tip, Holly Blue, Peacock and Speckled Wood.

Back to Winter?

Sunshine and showers, 8°, blustery WNW.

Bunk area very quiet. Gravel pit: 2 Mute Swan, 8 Tufted Duck, 4 Shoveler, 4 Gadwall, 12 Lapwing, a Common Gull, a Grey Wagtail and a Peregrine over plus the usual Gulls.

Who knows what is lurking in the 4-5 other pits that we do have a view of?

Just 2 Redwing, 2 Chiffchaff and 3 Yellowhammer on walk.

Monday very quiet also. 16 Lapwing on the flood at Lollingdon and 5 Chiffchaff, a Blackcap and a Meadow Pipit.

Butterflies: A Small Tortoiseshell and several Peacock on Monday.

Grey Wagtail collecting nest material from our roof

20-Plume Moth. Thanks to Michael P and Wyatt for the ID.

Lollingdon & The Lees and a Hummer

Sunny periods, 12°, breezy SW.

Lollingdon and The Lees:

Firstly a Hummingbird Hawkmoth in the garden this morning feeding on Rosemary flowers. A very early record for these parts, presumably over wintered nearby.

A flock of c200 Gulls (Lesser Blackback Gull) on the flood out at Lollingdon. Initially didn’t see any waders until a low flying Buzzard spooked the flock. Amongst the panicking Gulls I heard an Oystercatcher calling, then a Ringed Plover call and saw the bird fly off to the north. When the Gulls settled down the Oystercatcher was still present.

Also a single Common Gull present, 16 Black-headed Gull, 32 Lapwing flew in later and 2 male Peregrine overhead.

Fairly sure there was a Yellow-legged Gull in the mix but too distant to be confident of ID.

The Lees was a bit windswept but 2 Stonechat still present and feeding low on the fields, presumably out of the wind.

Elsewhere: 2 Chiffchaff, a Goldcrest, Meadow Pipit, 2 Yellowhammer and several Skylark.

A Grey Wagtail in the garden.

Mammals: Brown Hare & Roe Deer.

Moths: Hummingbird Hawkmoth.

Cholsey Marsh

Overcast, 8°, light ESE.

A late afternoon visit to Cholsey Marsh to monitor the Corn Bunting roost saw just over 120 birds come in over a 30-minute period at dusk and 2 Meadow Pipit in the roost.

Also a Goose flock in a nearby field comprising of c150 birds, mainly Canada Geese plus 5 Egyptian Geese and a handful of Greylag Geese.

A Cormorant and a Peregrine overhead, a Tawny Owl heard nearby, both Mistle and Song Thrush in song, a Great-spotted Woodpecker drumming, 2-3 Water Rail, a Jay, a Reed Bunting, 2 Yellowhammer, a Chiffchaff and Goldcrest and several Fieldfare and Redwing.

A Firecrest found by Andy King in a Honey Lane garden on Sunday.

Mammals: Roe Deer.

Lollingdon

Overcast, 6°, Light SSE.

A walk out to the floods at Lollingdon:

2 Little Egret, 32 Lapwing, 2 Shoveler, 6 Teal and 8 Black-headed Gull with numerous other Gulls moving overhead.

A male Peregrine mobbing a Buzzard, numbers of Fieldfare and Redwing scattered about and 16 Yellowhammer.

Mammals: 2 Muntjac Deer.

Lollingdon & Garden

Overcast, 14°, light E.

A walk out to Lollingdon:

6 Stonechat, 100+ Fieldfare, c30 Redwing, 10 Mistle Thrush, 7 Siskin, a single Chiffchaff, 20+ Meadow Pipit, 9 Yellowhammer, 2 Raven, a Peregrine, 60+ Stock Dove over and a flock of 200+ Black-headed Gull accompanied by a handful of larger Gulls flying high north east.

Late afternoon a Sparrowhawk took a Collared Dove in the garden. Started to pluck it but was disturbed, flew with the prey to a sheltered corner of the garden and spent the next hour consuming the Dove.

4 Little Grebe, 18 Tufted Duck and over 150 Lesser Blackback Gull in/on/around the pit next to the bunk on Friday afternoon. 3 Teal there a couple or so weeks back as well. Per MA.

Distant Fieldfare

Peregrine

Overcast, 15°, light NNE.

Pretty quiet along Bunk today: Peregrine, Sparrowhawk, a single Chiffchaff, 2 Goldcrest, 8 Corn Bunting, 2 Yellowhammer, 20+ Pied Wagtail, several Meadow Pipit and a Mistle Thrush etc.

The Peregrine was initially seen on prey but was eventually bullied off by several Red Kite. The bird has a green ring on her left leg and I suspect this is the same female bird that nested in Cholsey in 2024 and South Stoke this year.

Bunk

Sunny spells, 22°, light WNW.

Bunk area still fairly quiet, 40 Swallow and 14 House Martin through, 12 Chiffchaff, a Willow Warbler, 2 Common Whitethroat, 4 Blackcap, 9 Yellowhammer, 50+ Linnet, a Hobby, a Peregrine (m) and a Grey Heron etc.

2 Yellow Wagtail over garden yesterday and a Raven.

Mammals: A Weasel along Green Lane.

Dragonflies: Common Blue Damsel, Southern Hawker and Common Darter.

Butterflies: a Clouded Yellow, Large White, Small White, Red Admiral, Speckled Wood, Gatekeeper and Meadow Brown.

2 European Hornet caught and released from indoors yesterday.

Garden stuff

Sunny, 28°, light NNW.

I deemed it too hot to go walking today so spent some time just sat in the garden keeping an eye on a 180° section of sky.

Apart from the 6 House Martin still present feeding young I had the following overhead. A single Swallow, 11 Swift, 3 Raven, a Hobby, a Peregrine, a Kestrel, a Mallard, c100 Lesser Blackback Gull and several Red Kite and Buzzard.

A Common Whitethroat, Coal Tit, Goldcrest and Chiffchaff in the garden along with the usual visitors.

A Willow Warbler singing from a silver Birch on the Station Road allotments for the last few mornings. Per Richard James.

Dragonflies: A Southern Hawker and 2 Common Darter.

Butterflies: Brimstone, Small White, Common Blue, Holly Blue, Red Admiral, Gatekeeper and Meadow Brown.

Peregrines

Last year in Cholsey a pair of Peregrines raised a single chick in a nest on a pylon. They used an old Ravens nest.

Over the winter 24/25 SSEN repainted the pylons in the area and removed the nest in the process.

This year there have been several sightings of Peregrines in the local area but we didn’t know where or if they had bred.

Recently, Paul Rainsden and Simon Booker had found an adult female Peregrine with 2 well grown young in the South Stoke area. The female had a green ring on. Last year’s female also sported a green ring on her left leg with the no 66 on. Although we can’t confirm yet, we believe this to be the same female and has nested somewhere in the local area.

The adult female was ringed as a chick in Brighton in 2014.

Photos courtesy Simon Booker. www.stokerpix.com.

The Lees and beyond

Sunny, 19°, light N.

The Lees and Long Ditch: not so much about birds today as plenty of insects on the wing.

Not a lot of bird species out there but, 5 Sedge Warbler 2+ Reed Warbler, 4 Reed Bunting, Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Common Whitethroat and a Peregrine.

Plus the odd Swallow, House Martin and Swift feeding overhead.

Dragonflies: Beautiful and Banded Demoiselle in some number, Large Red Damselfly, Azure Damselfly, Common Blue Damselfly and Hairy Dragonfly.

Butterflies: Brimstone, Large White, Small White, Green-veined White, Orange Tip, Common Blue, Holly Blue, Red Admiral, Painted Lady, Peacock, Speckled Wood and Small Heath.

Large Red Damsel

Reed Bunting

Small Heath

22-spot Ladybird courtesy Loren

? courtesy Loren.

Common Blue courtesy Loren

Numbers

Cloudy with sunny spells, humid, 16°, light NE.

Another slow day but a day of numbers.

All of this past week there has been 3-4 thousand Gulls feeding of the east side of the bill. Comprising up to 6 species. Feeding with them have been Gannet and Manx Shearwater. We are not sure what they are feeding on but they have been up and down the coast from the bill to approx. 1 Km along. Today there were approx. 200 Black-headed Gull and 100+ Manx Shearwater feeding in and around the flock.

Around 14:00 this afternoon the weather got very humid and out of nowhere, literally millions, and I mean millions of small flies started to appear moving from the south and flying north. Some of the guys at the Obs caught one and identified it as a Fever-fly (Dilophus febrilis). This movement continued for around 2 hours and the numbers began to peter out. I doubt these flies erupted at the bill, so maybe these flies originated on the continent and have crossed the Channell. Who knows?

Anyway, back to it: Birds today was. A Sedge Warbler, a Chiffchaff, 2 Willow Warbler, a Blackcap, 2 Lesser Whitethroat, 2 Common Whitethroat, a Wheatear, a Whinchat, 5 Swallow, c10 House Martin, 2 Swift, 2 Yellow Wagtail, 3-4 Buzzard and a Peregrine.

On the sea watch: 2 Whimbrel, an Arctic Skua, Kittiwake, a Puffin, and good numbers of Gannet, Guillemot and Razorbill as well as all the above.

Dragonflies: Broad-bodied Chaser.

Butterflies: Orange Tip, Green-veined White, Common Blue, Painted Lady, Red Admiral, Wall Brown, Speckled Wood and Small Heath.

Moths of note: Puss Moth and Cinnabar.

Whinchat

Puss Moth & Cinnabar

A Small section of the Obs lighthouse covered in Fever-fly. the whole south facing area , 20m high was covered in this density of insects for over 2 hours.

Some welcome sunshine

A sunny day, 6°, light ESE.

A nice bright day with a number of Chiffchaff around and an abundance of small insects in a few sheltered/sunny spots. 5 Chiffchaff feeding along a stretch of hedgerow along the Bunk near CSW and another 2 further along towards Green Lane and 1 in the garden.

A few of note: 60+ Fieldfare, 20+ Redwing, 2 Mistle Thrush, 2 Grey Wagtail, c30 Pied Wagtail, 20+ Linnet, 3 Grey Heron, 2 Tufted Duck, 2 Little Grebe, 100+ Black-headed Gull, 5 Lesser Blackback Gull, 2 Herring Gull, etc.

Lollingdon flood: 2 Shoveler plus the usual Gulls.

Long Ditch: Peregrine Falcon, 2 Stonechat, Reed Bunting, Meadow Pipit, etc.

AD & PC.

Several of the Chiffchaffs

Skylark courtesy Alan

Stonechat ↕ courtesy Alan

Long-tailed Tit

Grey Heron

Herring Gull

Floods still prevalent

Sunny spells, 3°, light SE.

Nice to see the sun today but still a bit on the chilly side.

Long Ditch: 3 Common Snipe, 2 Stonechat, many Skylark in good voice, Reed Bunting, Peregrine Falcon over and c30 Lesser Blackback Gull.

Lollingdon: c30 Teal, 14 Shoveler, 2 Common Gull, 20+ Lesser Blackback Gull, 100+ Black-headed Gull, 100+ Lapwing and a handful of Fieldfare and Redwing.

Moreton Floods: Chiffchaff, c600 Lapwing, 1 Pintail, c50 Teal, 2 Shelduck, 25 Shoveler, 1 Gadwall, 9 Wigeon and 2 Cormorant over.

A Chiffchaff in the garden late afternoon and Alan has a regular Blackcap visiting his garden.

AD & PC.

Shelduck

Lapwings approaching the flood with a small flock of Starling flying point. As the Lapwing flock landed, one of the Starling attempted to land with them. It took around 15 seconds of hovering before it realised the water was too deep for it and eventually flew of to join the others that landed in a nearby tree.