Still cool

Cloudy with the odd sunny spell and a light rain shower, 9°, light NNW.

Male Ring Ouzel still present on Lollingdon Hill (staying high) along with 4 Wheatear, 2 Yellow Wagtail, 2 Pied Wagtail and 4-5 Linnet.

2 Common Whitethroat, 3 Blackcap and a couple of Chiffchaff, 3 Corn Bunting, a Kestrel and a Peregrine Falcon overhead.

5 Swallow and 2 House Martin flew north.

Alan found our first Lesser Whitethroat of the year down on the Marsh plus the 2 Common Tern along the river and several House Martin and Swallow.

Butterflies: Brimstone.

Male Ring Ouzel high on the hill ↕

Wheatear

Inflight Lesser Whitethroat courtesy Alan

White Storks!

Sunny spells, heavy showers, 13º, fresh SSW.

A walk out on the farmland today, dodging the rain showers!

Chiffchaff was the commonest warbler today, along with Blackcap. Still very few Whitethroats around, only one heard today. 2 Sedge Warblers along the “reedy ditch” near the Lees.

Linnet, Yellowhammer and Corn Bunting well represented today and Chaffinch in just about every hedgerow, Greenfinch and Goldfinch also regular. Several Reed Buntings present in fields of oil seed rape.

A male Ring Ouzel seen between Cholsey and Aston Tirrold in the horse paddocks and 5 Wheatear on Lollingdon Hill and a single Meadow Pipit seen, also the usual 2 Pied Wagtails feeding with the sheep.

Quite a few Buzzards in the air today, several Red Kite and singles of Sparrowhawk and Kestrel.

3 Yellow Wagtail seen, Lollingdon, the Lees and Manor farm.

A small flock of Hirundines over Cholsey SF had around 6 House Martin, 2 Sand Martin and a few Swallows, 8 other Swallows seen in various locations.

Tawny Owls heard in garden tonight! Hedgehogs also active in garden.

Also several Roe Deer seen today, Peacock and Brimstone butterflies.

A text from Ian Lewington at around 16:30 to say there were 6 White Storks on Cholsey hill (found by Tony Rayner), adrenalin rush! Quickly phoned Tony Williams and got there in 2 minutes! As I arrived, there was a couple sat watching them from a car and at that point they started to fly. Tony Williams then arrived and a few of us watched them fly over the hill towards Brightwell and disappeared from view. Then had a call to say they were being seen flying over North Moreton, then Didcot, last seen near to Sutton Courtney over the A34. No more news since!

More @ http://oxonbirding.blogspot.co.uk/

This represents the first record of this species in Cholsey!

                                        White Storks

               White Stork (photo courtesy Ian Lewington) 

                                  Ring Ouzel

                                         Ring Ouzel

                                       And........you’ve guessed it!

Lollingdon and Standlake.

Sunny spells, 10º, light WNW, a few showers.

A quick visit to Lollingdon Hill turned up a nice male Ring Ouzel feeding on the hill along with 8 Wheatear.

A stop on the way back this evening and the Ring Ouzel was still present (Tony Williams there watching it) along with 10 Wheatear, also 20+ Meadow Pipit, Pied Wagtail, Linnet and Chaffinch.

2 Swallows flew through this evening.

Whilst up on the hill I got a text from Badger to say there was a Black-winged Stilt at Pit 60, Standlake.

I got to Standlake about an hour later and luckily the Stilt was still there, as well as the Black-winged Stilt there was also 2 Common Sandpiper, Little Ringed Plover, Redshank, Common Snipe, Gadwall, 1 Goosander, a pair of Red-crested Pochard, many other ducks and Geese, Kingfisher, Oystercatcher, Swallows and Sand Martins.

                                    Ring Ouzel

                                   Ring Ouzel

                                    Black-winged Stilt

                                    Black-winged Stilt

                                   Redshank

                                          Common Sandpiper

Cholsey 15th April

Cloudy, bright, 13º, Light SW.

Cholsey Downs and Fairmile.

20+ Wheatear between the Fairmile and Juniper Valley + 6 Corn Buntings, 2 Whitethroat, 3 Willow Warbler, Jay,  etc.

Lollingdon Hill.

5 Wheatear

2 Yellow Wagtail

1 Ring Ouzel (also seen by TW)

Small Tortoiseshell, Brimstone, Peacock and Holly Blue seen.

                                   Corn Bunting

                                   Yellow Wagtail

            Red Kite and Buzzard. The Kite had a Blue plastic streamer hanging from it?

An email from a birder in Cholsey.

“Had my first Yellow Wagtail in west Cholsey today.
The Moorhens on Cholsey Brook have 3 surviving chicks (c.6 days old), no Blue tit eggs yet in the lined nest in my nest box (a box in Wallingford already has incubating Great Tits, which are usually later than Blue), a Dunnock nest in my garden failed with 2 eggs (cause unknown - female nobbled?), and today I had a pair of Starlings in the garden - very unusual.
A pair of Jackdaws became trapped in my neighbour's house while they were on holiday - you would not believe the mess. They came down the chimney and were surviving on the contents of a bowl of fruit!
A Buzzard was attacking the Rookery near the school yesterday, diving right onto nests (probably trying to grab the half-grown chicks).
An hour's ringing in the garden yesterday produced just 5 Blue Tits (3 recaptures). Neither of the females had a fully developed brood patch.”