Another wet one

Overcast with frequent rain showers, 11°, breezy SW.

Not long back from a visit to Yorkshire and an abortive walk out to the Lollingdon floods today. Nothing there, probably due to a “@~?”%” with a shotgun out there!

The rain wasn’t doing any favours either. A Goldcrest and a Chiffchaff heard in the Millennium Wood and good numbers of Fieldfare and Redwing around.

That was about it.

James Beaumont had 3-4 Redpoll at Cholsey Meadows earlier in the week.

A Redpoll on Cholsey Marsh from a few years ago.

Bunk

Mainly sunny, 9°, breezy E.

Quiet along the Bunk area today: 4+ Chiffchaff in the usual spot near CSW and a Raven over.

c200 Lapwing at the gravel pit plus a Little Grebe and 2 Tufted Duck and the usual Fieldfare and Redwing around and that was about it!

2 Redpoll along Bunk yesterday. Per Brian Wyatt and a singing Blackcap, Papist Way. Per Phil Dyson.

Lollingdon

Cloudy with a few light rain showers, 15°, breezy SSW.

A breezy walk out to Lollingdon:

3 Chiffchaff (1 in song), 4 Goldcrest, c120 Fieldfare, c75 Redwing, 2 Mistle Thrush, an increase in Blackbird numbers, 200+ Starling, 50+ Meadow Pipit, 20+ Pied Wagtail, 5 Siskin, 2+ Redpoll, 3 Yellowhammer, 2 Jay and a Kingfisher.

A  male Merlin seen around the Hithercroft area. Per Connor Pimm.

Another near miss today. Mike Amphlett found a Brent Goose with a flock of Gulls just a few hundred meters outside the parish boundary in Moulsford. The species has not been recorded in Cholsey before, so worth keeping an eye out in case it joins the Goose flock on the Cholsey side.

Phone cam photo of Brent Goose (Dark-bellied form), breeds on Arctic coasts of central and western Siberia and winters in coastal western Europe. courtesy Mike Amphlett. Great find.

The Lees

Cloudy, 11°, light SSE.

The Lees:

4 Stonechat today and with 2 along the Bunk and 2 out at Lollingdon there are at least 8 Stonechat in Cholsey at the moment.

A Chiffchaff and a Goldcrest with a Tit flock, a small movement of Finches noted with, 10+ Siskin, a handful of Redpoll, 20+ Linnet, 30+ Goldfinch and 20+ Chaffinch, plus 20-30 birds unidentified.

20+ Skylark, 36 Meadow Pipit, 3 Yellowhammer, 2 Reed Bunting, a Kingfisher and several Fieldfare and Redwing and 7 Shoveler flew north east.

Tawny Owl calling from garden @ 21:35.

The Lees

Mainly cloudy, 16°, light NNW.

The Lees:

5 Redwing, 150+ Meadow Pipit, 20+ Pied Wagtail, c50 Skylark, 50+ Linnet, 7 Siskin, 3 Redpoll, 1 Yellowhammer, 5 Reed Bunting, 14 Corn Bunting, 9 Chiffchaff, 2 Raven, a Grey Heron etc.

Mistle Thrush and Grey Wagtail in garden.

Mammal: Roe Deer.

Dragonflies: Common Darter.

Butterflies: Small White.

A swarm of Harlequin Ladybird, 100’s.

The Floods

Overcast, 7°, light ENE.

Lollingdon floods: c500 Lapwing, c100 Black-headed Gull and a handful of distant large Gulls, 20+ Pied Wagtail and a Little Egret.

Nearby, 3 Corn Bunting, 2 Yellowhammer, the usual Fieldfare and Redwing and 4-5 Redpoll near the Bullshole.

Mammals: Brown Hare.

Day 9: a good one

Mainly cloudy, 7°, fresh NE.

Best day so far with a reasonable fall of migrants.

Sea-watch: an on and off one today with a Pomarine Skua, 3 Arctic Skua, c80 Common/Arctic Tern, a few Sandwich Tern, several Manx Shearwater, a Fulmar and the usual Gannet, Shag, Cormorant and Auks plus the 1000 strong, feeding, Gull flock off the Bill.

Land: a Redpoll, 3 Sedge Warbler, 2 Reed Warbler, 3 Grasshopper Warbler, 10 Common Whitethroat, 3 Lesser Whitethroat, 18 Willow Warbler, 9 Chiffchaff, 3 Common Redstart, 3 Pied Flycatcher, 2 Whinchat, 2 Stonechat, 102 Wheatear, 3 Yellow Wagtail, 80+ Swallow, 14 House Martin, 6 Sand Martin and 4 Swift.

Mammals: Grey Seal.

Chiffchaff

Reed Warbler

Pied Flycatcher

Wheatear

Redstart

Wheatear

Common Whitethroat

Grey Seal

Gannet diving for fish

Sunday

Sunshine with cloudy spells, 13°, light SW.

Alan out today with 3 Common Sandpiper along the Bunk area plus Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Reed Bunting and Swallow.

A single Wheatear on Lollingdon Hill plus Corn Bunting, a Raven and Peregrine over, Chiffchaff and Blackcap.

River: Common Whitethroat, Cetti’s Warbler, Swallow etc.

Michael Pocock had a Redpoll in his garden this morning.

Dragonflies: Large Red Damselfly.

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

All photos courtesy Alan  

Common Sandpiper

Common Whitethroat

Holly Blue

Wheatear

Small Tortoiseshell

Firecrest, Redpoll & Barn Owl

Overcast, 2°, light NE.

A call from Tony W this afternoon stirred both myself and Alan to shoot up to Caps Lane, where Tony had just seen a Firecrest, Blackcap and some Siskin and Redpoll.

By the time we got there, no Firecrest was to be found but plenty of Finches around with many Goldfinch plus several Chaffinch, 3-4 Siskin and 1-2 Redpoll.

Also Nuthatch, a Treecreeper, plenty of Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tit plus Fieldfare and Redwing and a single Goldcrest and Alan found a Barn Owl a bit later.

Mammals: A Red Fox, a Muntjac Deer and 5 Roe Deer.

AD, PC & TW.

Siskin courtesy Alan

Fieldfare

Getting colder

Cloudy with some sunshine, 12°, light WNW.

The Long Ditch, Lollingdon and Bunk line covered today.

Kingfisher, Peregrine, Reed Bunting, 4 Stonechat, 5 Siskin, 3 Redpoll, 4 Grey Wagtail (incl 1 in the garden), Sparrowhawk, 2 Kestrel, 2 Chiffchaff and good numbers of Fieldfare and Redwing. Several Skylark and a few Yellowhammer, Meadow Pipit and Pied Wagtail.

Dragonflies: a single Common Darter.

Paul & Alan.

Siskin courtesy Alan ↕

Buzzard courtesy Alan

Stonechat courtesy Alan

A couple from the garden. Grey Wagtail (above) & Dunnock, Wren & Blue Tit (below)

Solo

Rain at first then sunny, 15°, light SW.

Alan out today along the river and Green lane. Plenty of Fieldfare and Redwing around now, plus Teal, Kingfisher, Grey Wagtail, Chiffchaff, 2+ Redpoll and a Raven overhead.

All photos courtesy Alan

Teal

Common Buzzard

Redpoll

Fieldfare

VizMig

Sunny ’ish, 16°. Breezy ENE.

A lot of chatter on WhatsApp this morning regarding “VizMig” (visible migration) of mainly Thrushes and Finches in Oxfordshire and further afield. E.g. an estimated 350,000 Redwing over Westenschouwen in the Netherlands today.

Alan was already out and confirmed this. I couldn’t make it ‘til this afternoon and also noted movement of birds.

So both along the Bunk line at different times and Alan along the river later in the day.

Rough figures of 200+ Redwing, up to 100 Fieldfare, 100+ Starling, 5 Redpoll and a hint of Skylark all moving south to south west. Not a lot compared to some sites, but that’ll do.

Redwing and the odd Song Thrush heard passing overhead after dark this evening.  

At one point about 350 Gulls and Corvids all took to the air. They had been following a plough.

A look skyward produced a Peregrine that soared high over me and continued north. Eventually all the birds settled back down behind the plough.

A few Pied Wagtail, Meadow Pipit and Yellowhammer present, plus a single Grey Heron and Chiffchaff.

The river produced a few more Fieldfare over plus Chiffchaff, Grey Wagtail and Kingfisher.

As an observation not bird related. The local farm was cutting the hedge (or rather hacking it) along the Bunk line today (a bit early!) when I noticed the arm of the mechanism was caught on the overhead telephone wires. I tried to warn the driver but as he moved forward the line snapped and he has presumably cut some residents off from the telephone service.

Dragonflies: Common Darter.

Peregrine Falcon

Redpolls courtesy Alan

A wet one

Overcast with frequent rain showers, 14°, light SW.

A wet walk out to Lollingdon hill this morning. A Little Egret in the Little Lollingdon area and 2 Stonechat still on the hill.

Higher numbers of Meadow Pipit around with c100 counted plus good numbers of Pied Wagtail.

2+ Redpoll, 14 Yellowhammer, a Little Owl calling and appears to be an influx of Chaffinch with 80+ seen.

5 Chiffchaff scattered about and 7 House Martin overhead and a single Swallow over Church Road late afternoon.

Alan along the river later in the day, Cetti’s Warbler (in song), Chiffchaff, Reed Bunting, Sparrowhawk and House Martin.

Mammals: Brown Hare & Roe Deer and Tony Williams saw an Otter on the river.

Dragonflies: Migrant Hawker.

Butterflies: a single Small White.

Roe Deer with young

Meadow Pipit

Stonechat

Dunnock