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.

Grey days

Overcast, 4°, light NE.

Another dull day but a good number of Ducks on and around the floods.

Moreton Floods: c500 Lapwing, 4 Golden Plover, c45 Shoveler, c50 Teal, 6 Pintail, 2 Shelduck, 8 Wigeon, 2 Gadwall, several Reed Bunting.

A Barn Owl hunting near Caps Lane.  

Bunk: somewhat quieter, a Mute Swan over, a single Chiffchaff and c200 Starling, c100 Fieldfare and c50 Redwing of note.

Mammals: Roe Deer.

AD & PC.

Bunk & Moreton Floods

Cloudy with sunny spells, 9°, light NNE.

Bunk Line: Not much going on. Pair of Kestrel, Fieldfare, Redwing, c300 Starling, Grey Wagtail, usual gulls, Mistle Thrush 🎶 singing and Goldcrest in the churchyard.

Moreton floods: c30 Pintail, c100 Teal, c20 Shoveler, 1 Shelduck, 2 Gadwall, 6 Wigeon, c400 Lapwing, 1 Little Egret, c12 Snipe and Skylark.

AD.

all pics courtesy Alan

Marsh, Meadows & Floods

Overcast, brightening later, 8°, light S.

Still a fair bit of flooding around but water is receding.  

Cholsey Meadows/Marsh: 2 Coal Tit, Treecreeper, Goldcrest, Chiffchaff, Cetti’s Warbler, Mistle and Song thrush in good voice, 2 Raven, Water Rail, Reed Bunting, Canada, Greylag and Egyptian Goose, etc.

Moreton Floods: 17 Pintail, c40 Teal, Shelduck, c500 Lapwing, Chiffchaff.

Bunk: c100 Fieldfare, c80 Redwing, 6 Mistle Thrush, 5 Song Thrush, 2 Chiffchaff, 2 Yellowhammer, Reed Bunting, 20+ Linnet, 2 Grey Wagtail, 7 Pied Wagtail, c400 Starling, usual Gulls, 2 Teal, 6 Tufted Duck and a Coot.

Brook Meadow: Coal Tit, 5 Long-tailed Tit, 2 Nuthatch, 2 Great-spotted Woodpecker, Green Woodpecker, Chiffchaff.

AD & PC.

Pintail courtesy Alan ↕

Lesser Blackback Gull

Black-headed Gull

Blackcap courtesy Alan

Lollingdon and Bunk

Cloudy, 6°, light NE

Lollingdon and Bunk:

Lollingdon: A Pintail, c 20 Teal, 5 Shoveler,c150 Lapwing, a Little Egret, 2 Common Gull and c100 Black-headed Gull.

Bunk: several Mistle Thrush singing, up to 7 in total noted, also several Song Thrush in song.

Several small flocks of Fieldfare and Redwing, c100 Black-headed Gull, the regular 2 Herring Gull but fewer Lesser Blackback Gull.

2 Grey Wagtail, 50 + Pied Wagtail feeding on flooded fields, 2-3 Chiffchaff, 12 Meadow Pipit, a Treecreeper, Sparrowhawk, Kestrel, 11 Shoveler, 6 Tufted Duck, both Canada and Greylag Goose heard, a Cormorant over, 2 Coot and 3 Little Grebe.

Upwards of 200 Lapwing seen high over Cholsey Hill, appeared to drop down towards the Moreton floods.

And a Blackcap in Alan’s Garden.

AD & PC.

Pintail courtesy Alan

Shoveler

Pied Wagtail

Mistle Thrush

Little Owl courtesy Alan

Cholsey and Radley.

Overcast, 12º, no wind, another gloomy day!

Was at the gym in Abingdon today so when finished decided to visit Thrupp Lake at Radley and a quick look at some of the other water bodies there as it was not too far away.

Quite a few duck species there which included Mallard, Pochard, Teal, Wigeon, Tufted Duck, Shoveler, Gadwall, and a ♂ Pintail, also a Chiffchaff seen & heard feeding in the bank side trees.

Cormorant, Great Crested and Little Grebe, Mute Swan, Canada and Greylag Goose all present.

The river level has dropped substantially in the last week, still high and running fast for the Thames but mainly contained within its banks, the riverside paths still very muddy and wet.

A late visit to Cholsey marsh proved fairly routine apart from one sighting, around one hundred Corn Bunting at the roost and twenty plus Reed Bunting and approximately six Yellowhammer also roosting but not in the same area as the Corn Bunting.

Several Water Rail heard and just after 16:00, a Merlin flew through and headed upstream towards the Bow bridge area, also a Kingfisher flew upriver.

At least two Song Thrush singing at dusk and several Bullfinch heard calling.

A large corvid (Rook and Jackdaw) roost seen distantly well over five hundred birds not sure what side of the river they were on and quite a few Fieldfare and Redwing roosting in trees around the marsh.

             A pair of Gadwall and two Coot in the background

                                  Mute Swan

1066, Churn and Lollingdon

Cloudy, 7º, light SW.

1066

100+ Teal, 1 ♂ Pintail and 4 Wigeon (2♂ & 2♀), a single Lapwing and a ♀ Sparrowhawk.

Goldcrest and Long-tailed Tits in the hedgerow.

Churn

Close on 2000 Gulls following 2 ploughs, rather distant but Gulls passing overhead were all Black-headed or Lesser Blackbacks.

C100 Fieldfare, c60 Starling and a few Redwing, 100+ Lapwing, 20 Linnet, 2 Stock Dove, Kestrel and a bonus of a Merlin that flew through.

Lollingdon Hill

A single Song Thrush, and a small flock of 40 Fieldfare.

                                   4 Wigeon and a couple of Teal