Black Red & Green

Another sunny one, 20°, light NNE.

Bunk, River and Lees areas: A female Black Redstart (3rd record) found by Alan late in the day out towards the Lees, elsewhere, 3 Willow Warbler, usual Chiffchaff and Blackcap, Cetti’s Warbler, Common Sandpiper, Greenshank, Oystercatcher, Little Egret, 2 Herring Gull, 8 Black-headed Gull, 5 Lesser Blackback Gull, Gulls becoming less frequent now, 2 Little Grebe, a Teal, 12 Tufted Duck, a Sparrowhawk and a Raven over.

A Ring-necked Parakeet north over Church road approx. 19:00. Per RB.

Mammals: Roe Deer.

Butterflies: Brimstone, Green-veined White, Orange Tip and Peacock.

AD & PC.

Black Redstart courtesy Alan

Black Redstart ↕

Greenshank courtesy Alan

Roe Deer

A grey day

Overcast, 7°, light SW.

A grey old day with both Lollingdon and Bunk area covered: Little Egret, c400 Lapwing, 200+ Lesser Blackback Gull, 5 Herring Gull, 2-3 Common Gull, c50 Black-headed Gull, Common Snipe, 2 Sparrowhawk, Kestrel, 50+ Pied Wagtail, 2 Grey Wagtail, 2 Yellowhammer, several Corn Bunting, c100 Fieldfare, 20+ Redwing and a Ring-necked Parakeet.

TW has a male Blackcap regularly in his garden and a female Sparrowhawk visiting frequently.

2 Great-spotted Woodpecker in the garden today along with all the other visitors.

Mammals: Brown Hare.

Common Gull courtesy Alan

Great-spotted Woodpecker

Black-headed Gull (winter plumage)

Distant Little Egret

Pied Wagtail

Bunk & Cholsey Hill

Sunny intervals, 15°, light WSW.

A little quieter today: the Grey Plover with c100 Golden Plover still on Cholsey Hill.

Bunk: c20 Shoveler, 4 Tufted Duck, 3 Goose species, a Chiffchaff, c30 Redwing, several Meadow Pipit and Skylark and a Ring-necked Parakeet.

Dragonflies: several Common Darter.

Butterflies: 2 Red Admiral and a Speckled Wood.

AD & PC.

A few of  the Shoveler this afternoon

A basking Common Darter in the late sunshine

Kestrel on the look out

Starlings preparing to fly to roost

All in all: Pretty quiet

A cloudy day, 17°, light NNW.

Bunk line: all in all, pretty quiet. c30 House Martin, 10+ Swallow, at least 2 Sand Martin and a handful of Swift. A Lesser Whitethroat, 5 Common Whitethroat, 3 Blackcap, 4 Chiffchaff, 5 Yellowhammer, 3 Reed Bunting, a Corn Bunting, Raven, a Lapwing, 3 Black-headed Gull and a single Lesser Blackback Gull etc.

River: Cetti’s Warbler, Common Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat, Cuckoo over, Garden Warbler, Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Black-headed Gull, Reed Bunting, Swift, Swallow and House Martin.

A Ring-necked Parakeet in a Church road garden this evening, chased off by a Jackdaw. Per RB.  

Dragonflies: Beautiful Demoiselle and Azure Damselfly.

Butterflies: Green-veined White and Speckled Wood.

AD, RB & PC.

Black-headed Gull

Red-eyed Damselfly (yesterday) courtesy Alan

Lollingdon

Sunny spells, 22°, breezy S.

A Lesser Whitethroat and 2+ Corn Bunting on Lollingdon Hill. Nearby, Chiffchaff, Common Whitethroat, Blackcap, 2 Lapwing plus the usuals.

Mammals: Brown Hare.

Dragonflies: Banded and Beautiful Demoiselle.

Butterflies: Small Skipper, Brimstone, Large White, Small White, Common Blue, Painted Lady, Red Admiral, Marbled White, Comma, Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown and Speckled Wood.

River and Bunk rather quiet. Per Alan.

A Ring-necked Parakeet seen by RB in the Church Road area on Saturday then seen at various places in the village over the weekend.

Insects: Stag Beetle, male found by Alan and a female near the Bullshole.

Long-tailed Tit

Stag Beetle (f)

Common Blue ↕

Stag Beetle (m) courtesy Alan

October out with a whimper

Cloudy, 16°, light SE.

A pretty quiet one today with both out along the Bunk line.

The usual Winter Thrushes of c100 Redwing and 20+ Fieldfare now regularly seen, plus a Sparrowhawk carrying prey, 2 Kestrel, 2 Grey Heron, a Chiffchaff, Grey Wagtail, 100+ Lesser Blackback Gull, 2 Herring Gull and 20’ish Black-headed Gull.

The usual commoner Finches and a few Yellowhammer.

On the walk back I noticed a flock of Wood Pigeon and Gulls on Cholsey hill take to the air and managed to pick out a male Peregrine swooping thru. Didn’t take anything and continued flying towards Wittenham Clumps.

The Ring-necked Parakeet still present around the Station Road Allotments.

Grey Wagtail courtesy Alan

Some of todays Fungi

RNP

Mainly sunny, 18°, light SSW.

A phone call from Tony Williams this morning alerting me to a Ring-necked Parakeet (Rose-ringed Parakeet) on the Station Road allotments.

An immature (?) bird was present and moving between gardens in Sandy Lane and the allotments.

I was in no hurry to see this bird so I didn’t turn up until around midday and ended up not seeing it. However, Alan was present and had managed a few photos and a video grab. It may well still be in the area as there is plenty of fruit around.

Fortunately a scarce species in Cholsey as they are noisy and competitive with native species.

Loren laughed at me when I said I would take a look, as when she lived in Surrey, she had hundreds flyover every day. Common as muck!

also a Jay present nearby.  

Butterflies: a well-worn Painted Lady found by Jane Dawson on the allotments.

Not a lot

Sunny spells, 19°, light NNW.

A disappointing visit out to the Lees this morning as the long ditch has had all the vegetation cut and looked quite bare and desolate except for some Bullrushes along the centre. Subsequently nothing present there apart from a couple of Wren.

Only other bird of note was a Peregrine distantly on one of the pylons.

A single Wheatear on Lollingdon hill today. per AD.

Peregrine

A Ring-necked Parakeet in a Wallingford garden (courtesy Alan Dawson)

Aliens have Landed

RB has photographed a Ring-necked Parakeet in his garden today................less than 100 metres from our garden and last seen headed this way.

Must have followed Loren from Surrey!

Ring-necked Parakeet (courtesy RB)

Birds and Fungi.

Overcast, light rain, 15º, light ESE. Quite mild for November.

2 Mistle Thrush in the meadow, a lot of Finches past the Bullshole, Greenfinch (9), Goldfinch (12), Chaffinch (15) and a few House Sparrow (3+, not usually seen here).

Close to Lollingdon Hill, lots of Fieldfare (c400), Redwing (c30) and Starling (c50) all chattering away in the trees and hedgerows then moving off over the hill towards the downs. Stock Dove (7), Green and Great-spotted Woodpecker present nearby.

Skylark, Meadow Pipit, Yellowhammer and a single Reed Bunting on and around the hill, also 5 Red-legged Partridge and 15 Grey Partridge.

Lots of Gulls and Corvids in the surrounding Fields.

Near the Lees, I found a Stonechat feeding along the long ditch. Several Jay and Magpie at the Lees.

Cholsey Church had 4 Mistle Thrush, 9 Greenfinch and 2 Magpie in the grounds.

15 Corn Bunting on Cholsey Hill.

2 Red Admiral also seen.

A lot of Fungi seen in crop fields today, surprised by the quantity around! Also 2 examples of "Destroying Angel" found in a garden in Church Rd, One of the top 5 most poisonous fungi found in the UK.

I was in Wallingford (the old Waitrose car park) this afternoon and could hear a Ring-necked Parakeet calling but could not locate it.

At least 2 Hedgehogs still visiting garden and Tawny Owls quite vocal in the garden tonight.

                                   Stonechat

                                   Stonechat

                                  Stonechat

                                    Fieldfare

                                   Shaggy Inkcap

                                    Not identified yet.

                                   Not identified yet.

                                    Not identified yet.