Lollingdon & Bunk

Light rain at first then sunny spells, 15°, light SSE.

Lollingdon: Ruff still present, Oystercatcher, usual Teal, Shoveler and Lapwing and a Little Egret.

Bunk: a Merlin (f) flew through, Oystercatcher, 2 Stonechat, Sparrowhawk, 25+ Lesser Blackback Gull, 6 Black-headed Gull, 2 Herring Gull, 8 Tufted Duck, 60+ Lapwing, 100+ Starling, c80 Fieldfare, 20+ Redwing, a Grey Wagtail, 9 Pied Wagtail, 7 Chiffchaff and a Blackcap.

AD & PC.

Stonechat

Oystercatcher courtesy Alan

Ruff ↕ courtesy Alan

Stonechat

Starling

Ruff times

Sunny then clouding up, 13°, light SSE.

Lollingdon: Alan out earlier and the 3 Ruff back on the Lollingdon flood. They are ranging from Lollingdon to the floods out towards Aston. 2 Redshank over, Shelduck, Shoveler, Teal, Lapwing, Little Egret, Goldcrest and Treecreeper.

I checked out the hill later but relatively quiet, a flock of Fieldfare and Starling with the sheep plus a few Pied Wagtail and Skylark. After, I went down to the flood. c60 Lapwing, 21 Shoveler, 6 Teal and a little later the 3 Ruff turned up.

As it was sunny I thought I’d go back to the Bunk area and at least 5 Chiffchaff present, feeding along the hedgerow at the south west corner of CSW. A Common Snipe over and a Blackcap.

Ruff & Chiffchaff

Here & There

Sunshine, 12°, light S.

Lollingdon: 3 Ruff, 20 Lapwing, Common Gull, 15 Shoveler, c20 Teal and a Little Egret.

Wallingford Rd flood: c80 Teal and Chiffchaff and Blackcap in song nearby.

Bunk: 7 Chiffchaff (3 in song), c50 Fieldfare, c20 Redwing, Treecreeper, Grey Wagtail, 2 Grey Heron, 10 Tufted Duck and a Sparrowhawk. Plus the 2 Herring Gull on their usual perch.

Cholsey Hill: c30 Golden Plover.

Mammals: Brown Hare and Roe Deer.

Butterflies: Brimstone.

AD, GW & PC.  

Whilst Alan was out at Lollingdon photographing birds on the flood, a dog walker came along. Aware that Alan was photographing birds on the flood and proceeded to let their dog run into the flood and flush everything.

Inconsiderate? Thoughtless? Keep the dog under control for a time or let it run free? What do you think? I know what I think but it’s not for here!

Fortunately Alan did get a pic of the 3 Ruff together.

Ruff

Another sunny day, 10°, light SSW.

3 Ruff still present on Lollingdon flood. Per Alan.

Greylag Goose over garden.

Ruff with Lapwing courtesy Alan

Waders

A sunny day, 10°, light NE.

A bit of a “Wader fest” on Lollingdon floods today. not often that we have had waders turn up in Cholsey but today found by Alan: 3 Redshank, 3 Ruff ( 2nd record), a Dunlin and a Ringed Plover along with c200 Lapwing, c10 Shoveler, 6 Teal, c100 Black-headed Gull and c50 Lesser Blackback Gull.

2 Raven, 2 Yellowhammer and a Blackcap in song.

Mammals: Brown Hare.

AD, MM, PC & RB.

Ruff courtesy Alan

Ruff (1st record) and Lapwing, January 2013, courtesy Richard Broughton

Ruff & Stonechat

Just driving back from Wallingford when I noticed a Wader on the floods along Hithercroft.

A quick stop (fortunately I carry a pair of binoculars in the car) and identified it as a Ruff, a rare bird in Cholsey, the last record being Jan 2013.

There are quite extensive floods between Cholsey, Brightwell and the Moretons and there were a lot of Gulls present.

The last time it flooded like this there were several species of Wader present so worth looking out for.

A Stonechat found by Michael Pocock at Cholsey Meadows today.

I did not get a photo of the Ruff so I have uploaded an image courtesy of the BTO (Tom Wallis).

The Elusive Shrike

Overcast, light snow, 0°, little wind.

Walked down to Cholsey marsh at first light this morning (roads in village very icy) and spent 2 hours looking for the Shrike but unfortunately not found. However quite a lot going on including plenty of boat crews out sculling on the Thames (they must be as mad as me being out at that time of day and in poor weather).

Brian and Roger Wyatt were both searching the area on the “Stoke” side of the river for the Shrike but no luck with them also but around 50 Common Snipe in the field there.

However the Great Grey Shrike was seen at 13:45 in the same place as yesterday but not since, I guess it is ranging over a wide area and best looked for on the "Stoke" side of the river.

Anyway back to the marsh, around twenty Teal flushed off the river by the boats and a few on the marsh on the unfrozen areas, also twenty plus Common Snipe present. Two Grey Heron and three Cormorant flying upriver.

The Cetti’s Warbler seen briefly but again very active and calling also a Chiffchaff with a Tit flock that passed through, and a Great-spotted Woodpecker on the other side of the river “drumming”.

At least five Siskin seen and heard flying over and eventually seen feeding on the bank side Alders and up to five Lesser Redpoll feeding on seed heads from plants on the marsh and numbers of Meadow Pipit feeding on the frozen surface of part of the marsh, a couple of Bullfinch heard calling.

Several Corn Bunting still present on the marsh including one singing also several Reed Bunting present and feeding with the Meadow Pipits.

Both Kestrel and Sparrowhawk seen and a Nuthatch seen and heard in the trees along Ferry Rd.

The Eastender reports four Lesser Redpoll on nyger seed feeders in the garden for around a month now and a Reed Bunting present yesterday.

Cholsey Brook had a Cormorant, two Common Snipe, two Meadow Pipit, three Teal, four Mallard and ten Lapwing in an adjacent field.

Richard has seen a Ruff in a field next to the Bunk line along with a lot of Common Snipe and several Lapwing; presumably the Ruff is the one that was wintering on the South Moreton floods (dont often get Ruff in Cholsey a rarity for here).

Three more new birds for the year in Cholsey today, Chiffchaff, Nuthatch and Ruff.

The garden this morning very much the same as yesterday.

Lesser Redpolls

Unexpected garden visitors.

Cloudy, 4º, light NNW, cooler, back to winter next week with snow forecast.

A couple of unexpected visitors to the garden today, two cock Pheasants appeared early afternoon and stayed for the rest of the day and a Rabbit made a brief appearance. Pheasant has been seen in the adjacent meadow before but not in the garden and the Rabbit is a first; the Rabbit now makes twelve mammal species seen in or from the garden.

Other birds in the garden today were several Lesser Redpoll briefly, two Stock Dove, a Song Thrush and another brief visit from a ♀ Blackcap, ten plus Goldfinch and over a dozen Chaffinch and there were two Magpie present in the front garden.

An adult ♀ and a juvenile ♀ Muntjac Deer in the garden again this evening, the juv being about one third smaller and paler (esp on the nape and upper back) than the adult.

Some news from the South Moreton floods recently were of up to one hundred Common Snipe and a single Jack Snipe seen, a Ruff and a Dunlin also noted and again up to a thousand Lapwing and similar numbers for Golden Plover.

Also four Raven (two pairs) in what could have been a territorial dispute in Cholsey recently.

Thanks to Michael Pocock, Tony Williams and Geoff Wyatt for information.

                                  Pheasants

                                  Song Thrush

Zilch on the hill but plenty nearby

Cloudy, 10º, fresh S

A visit to Lollingdon hill today produced “zilch” on the hill, nearly all the berries have gone and so have the thrushes and just about everything else!

Gulls and Corvids going back and forth over the hill and five Red Kite in the vicinity.

In the east of the village, TR reports twenty Linnet, nine Yellowhammer and a flyover Raven recently.

The garden this afternoon hosted two Grey Wagtail, a Great-spotted Woodpecker, also the two Coal Tit still visiting.

Brian Wyatt has been watching the flooded area in South Moreton (a stones throw from Cholsey hill) and seen the following today, a Ruff, a Dunlin, approx two hundred Golden Plover, three hundred Lapwing and fifty Common Snipe.

A Brambling in a garden in Ilges Lane on the 17th Nov.

Fieldfares and a couple of Redwing from Fri 16^th Nov