Another slow day

Sunny, 14°, moderate E.

Another slow day but slightly better than yesterday.

Sea watching produced 40+, Common Scoter, an Arctic Skua, a Great Northern Diver, 11 Manx Shearwater, 3 Fulmar and 4 Sandwich Tern.

Land wise: a Short-eared Owl, in-off the sea, a Grey Heron, 7 Swift, 15+ Swallow, 4 Yellow Wagtail, 2 White Wagtail, a Whinchat, 3 Wheatear, 5 Willow Warbler, a Lesser Whitethroat, 6 Common Whitethroat, 3 Blackcap and a Reed Warbler.

Dragonflies: Broad-bodied Chaser.

Butterflies: Green-veined White, Orange Tip, Wall Brown and Speckled Wood.

Whinchat

Wheatear

Skylark 

? courtesy Loren

Portland: Day 10.

Sunny, 18°, light NE.

An on/off sea watch today and a little less walking.

5 Manx Shearwater, 2 Balearic Shearwater, 1 Arctic Skua, 100+ Kittiwake, 15 Knot, 3 Wigeon, 10+ Auk, many Gannet etc.

2 Buzzard, Marsh Harrier, 2 Sparrowhawk, a Short-eared Owl, a Little Owl, 300+ Swallow, 100+ House Martin, 30+ Sand Martin, 25 Yellow Wagtail, 12 Grey Wagtail, 19 “alba” Wagtail, c200 Meadow Pipit, 3 Tree Pipit, 20+ Chiffchaff, 1 Willow Warbler, 1 Sedge Warbler, 2 Blackcap, 1 Common Redstart, 1 Whinchat, 3 Stonechat, 1 Spotted Flycatcher and 1 Pied Flycatcher, etc.

Dragonflies: Migrant Hawker & Common Darter.

Butterflies: fewer numbers of both Whites, Red Admiral, Painted Lady, Small Tortoiseshell, Speckled Wood and Small Heath.

Many Blue-fin Tuna still feeding offshore.

Sunrise

Weekend catchup

Cloudy yesterday but Sunny today, max 15°, light W.

"Quite a few" Sedge Warbler found on Cholsey Marsh this morning by Alan.

Cetti’s Warbler, Blackcap and Chiffchaff in song, also present on the Marsh.

A single Siskin flew over the allotments yesterday.

A Short-eared Owl on Cholsey Downs on the 2nd. Per Alan.

A Smooth Newt found by Angie Regan in their garden yesterday and several Grass Snake and Slow-worm in Tony Rayner’s garden.

Butterflies: Brimstone, Small White (TR), Orange Tip (TR), Holly Blue (AD), Small Tortoiseshell and Peacock.

Smooth Newt courtesy Angie Regan

Short-eared Owl courtesy Alan

Shorties again

Cloudy with a light rain shower, 10°, light N.

3 of us out and about today (Alan, Tony W, and myself), and all agreed it was somewhat quiet.

The Lees and Lollingdon were very quiet and even the Gulls had disappeared probably a consequence of the flooded areas drying up.

A flock of 30 Linnet out by the Lees, several Meadow Pipit and a few Skylark singing and both Green and Great-spotted Woodpecker.

Alan was also out along the river with only a Grey Wagtail and Chiffchaff of note to show for it.

Later in the day Alan went up on the Downs above Cholsey and found 2 Short-eared Owl hunting just outside the parish eventually seen flying north towards Cholsey.

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Light cloud with sunny intervals, 12°, NW.

A Short-eared Owl photographed by Roger Wyatt on Cholsey Downs yesterday was a good record for the local area.

A trek out to Lollingdon today proved rather quiet. A Little Owl heard calling, several Yellowhammer noted along with a couple of Reed Bunting and Linnet in song.

Very few Winter Thrushes seen with just a handful of Fieldfare and Redwing and a small flock of c20 Meadow Pipit.

Alan out along the Bunk line today: Little Owl, pair of Kestrel, Meadow Pipit, Stonechat, Herring Gull, Fieldfare, Redwing, Reed Bunting and a singing Goldcrest.

Mammals: Brown Hare and Roe Deer.

A Good number of pics today. Thanks to Roger for the SEO and Alan for the Stonechats and Chiffchaff.

Short-eared Owl

Meadow Pipit

Stonechat

Chiffchaff

Stonechat

Duelling Rooks

Brown Hare ↕

Meadow Pipit ↕

Sort-eared Owl (deceased)

Cloudy with some sunshine, 2°, breezy NNE.

Vicky Gilson found several bird remains out between the Lees and Aston earlier in the week.

They were all found close to the smaller power line. So it is possible they were victims of a power line strike.

One was identified as a Wood Pigeon and another a Corvid (probably Rook), the 3rd one was thought to be an Owl species but not much remained, mainly, some feathers.

Neither Vicky nor I were certain of the ID so I forwarded the feather photos onto Ian Lewington who confirmed the identity.

“These look like Short-eared Owl feathers, p8 and p9 from each wing and a couple of secondaries. The sparse, staggered barring on the primaries and the pale tipped secondaries are only shown by SEO.”

Thanks to Ian for the ID.

Short-eared Owl is a scarce visitor to the Cholsey area with less than 1 record per year!

Yesterday there were 3 Teal on Cholsey Marsh and 2 Stonechat around Cholsey Meadows . Per Alan.

Photos courtesy Vicky Gilson.  

Portland day 3: ITV visit

Sunny, 13°, breezy NE.

The day started off fairly quiet and an early morning visit from the ITV “country wise” to do a piece on the ringing activities at the observatory.

They spent most of the morning filming the ringer’s activities and talking to various birders at the Obs. The “Prof” being the star of the show with Martin overseeing and Joe Stockwell being filmed "birding".

Anyway back to what matters, the day started slow with 3 Yellow Wagtail over, a Short-eared Owl hunting the crown fields before flying up island, a small fall of Willow Warbler and Blackcap, a few Chiffchaff and Reed Warbler, a Sedge Warbler, a couple of Common Whitethroat, a Whinchat and a Goldcrest, also around 20 Wheatear.

A movement of Swallow started around 11:00 with 250+ over the next few hours and a few House Martin arriving with them.

The sea was very quiet today with 2 Great Northern Diver and 3 Whimbrel being the best of the bunch.

2 butterfly species today: Peacock and Green-veined White.

 Prof being interviewed

 A drone being used for overhead filming

A star is born (Joe Stockwell being filmed)

 Short-eared Owl disappearing in the distance.

 Above and below courtesy Loren

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A Short-eared Owl along the Bunk Line this afternoon just north of Cholsey SF, flew off east.

A Long-tailed Tit nest with eggs and a pair of Lapwing present nearby (Richard Broughton).

More Owls

Sunny spells, 6°, light to mod WNW.

A visit to Lollingdon hill today, 20+ Redwing and a few Fieldfare on the hill, 6 Yellowhammer and a couple of Buzzard.

A nice Barn Owl appeared late afternoon and was hunting for a time before being chased off by a couple of Crows. Quite probably a different bird to the one yesterday around Manor Farm.

A Short-eared Owl this evening flew across Church road and continued north (per RB).

And...........2 Tawny Owl in the meadow this evening.

Short-eared Owl and Woodcock

Sunny spells and getting colder, 6°, light to mod WNW.

Some info from TW.

A Short-eared Owl seen today out by the Lees and also a Woodcock there earlier in the week.

2 Barn Owl seen, 1 along the Bunk line and another out Lollingdon way.


Thanks Tony.

Chiffchaff still present out at Lollingdon, The Lees and Cholsey Marsh.

2 Nuthatch , a Great-spotted Woodpecker and Coal Tit still frequenting the garden this week.

Nuthatch still here and a BO & SEO Cholsey Hill

After 5 years of just one fleeting record of a Nuthatch visiting the garden, 2 have been visiting regularly now since June of this year. Hopefully they will stay in the area now.

A very weak-looking Barn Owl around the church and Church Rd bridge/bunk line just now. It was flying with some effort, flapping hard, moving from perch to perch, often landing on the ground. None of the usual floaty/hovering hunting flight. I'm guessing it's starving/sick/clipped by a car.  Also 150+ Skylark on the fields between the church/gym and the railway line.(per RB).


A Short-eared Owl on Cholsey Hill on Thursday 22nd Oct (per TR).

Redwings

Overcast, rain, 12º, light SW.

Up to 400 Redwing today out at Lollingdon, also numbers of Blackbird and Song Thrush present. A Raven still present in the area. (per TW).

Acting on Tony’s phone call I took a rather damp walk out to Lollingdon.

A good flock of thrushes still present in the area and appeared to be slowly moving west.

c400 Redwing, 50’ish Blackbird and 20+ Song Thrush both Redwing and Song Thrush calling as they were moving through the hedgerow feeding on Hawthorn berries.

Upwards of 200 Meadow Pipit around, 40+ Pied Wagtail and a few Skylark.

2 Raven, 3 Chiffchaff, 1 Grey Wagtail, c200 Linnet, c100 Chaffinch, 2 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 1 Green Woodpecker and 3+ Jay noted, also 36 Lapwing flew north.

A surprise of a Short-eared Owl drifted high overhead moving west.

A Southern Hawker dragonfly seen hunting in the rain.

2 Hedgehog frequenting the garden after dark along with at least 2 Tawny Owl recently.

 Redwings in the rain