The winds of Change

Mainly sunny, 20°, light WSW.

Finally, the wind and rain abated and produced a pleasant day for birding.

A morning’s sea-watch: 5 Arctic Skua, 50+ Kittiwake, a Yellow-legged Gull, 60+ Manx Shearwater, 100+ Balearic Shearwater, 60+ “Commic” Tern, 4 Arctic Tern, 2 Common Scoter, a Ringed Plover, a Curlew, a Whimbrel, numerous Gannet and several Oystercatcher.

VizMig and an afternoons walk: Barn Owl, Little Owl, 20+ Grey Wagtail, 30+ Yellow Wagtail, 3 Tree Pipit, 3 Meadow Pipit, a Pied Flycatcher, 4 Willow Warbler, 2 Chiffchaff, 2 Blackcap, a Common Whitethroat, a Sedge Warbler, 2 Whinchat, 3 Stonechat, 31 Wheatear, 4 Raven, a Sparrowhawk, Common Buzzard, a Common Snipe, 110+ Swallow, 30+ Sand Martin, 12 House Martin and 2 Swift.

Dragonflies: Migrant Hawker, Brown Hawker, Southern Hawker and Common Darter.

Butterflies: Clouded Yellow, Large White, Small White, Common Blue, Holly Blue, Red Admiral, Painted Lady, Wall Brown, Speckled Wood and Small Heath.

Moths: Convolvulus Hawkmoth and Hummingbird Hawkmoth.

Sun rise at the Obs

"Greenland" Wheatear courtesy Mark Cutts

 

A bit cold but no snow

Mainly cloudy and drizzly with some sunny spells, 4°, light W.

Both out along the Bunk line today at different times.

Lots of Gulls still around with 4 Common Gull, several Herring Gull, 100+ Lesser Blackback Gull, 150+ Black-headed Gull (most sporting their dark heads now) and a single Yellow-legged Gull.

Several hundred “Winter Thrushes”, mainly Fieldfare and fewer Redwing.

3 Lapwing flyovers, 3 Chiffchaff, several Pied Wagtail, a single Grey Wagtail, Kestrel and Grey Heron.

Rook

Great Tit ↕

Chiffchaffs

Breezy and sunny, 13°, moderate WSW.

Good to see Roger and Sue along the Bunk line today and as bonus they found 2 Siberian Chiffchaff as well as several Common Chiffchaff. Also a Merlin seen in the area a couple of day prior. Cheers.

Alan also found several Chiffchaff and a Goldcrest along Green Lane.

A flock of Gulls loafing in one of the fields until dispersed by a low flying Buzzard consisted of Lesser Blackback, Herring and Black-headed.

A Little Egret seen on the flood by Bunk Bridge and a Goldcrest nearby plus a scattering of Winter Thrushes and Starling.

Siberian "Tristis" Chiffchaff courtesy Roger Wyatt

Common Chiffchaff courtesy Alan

Goldcrest courtesy Alan

Little Egret

Herring Gull courtesy Alan

Yellow-legged Gull courtesy Alan (from a few days earlier)

Frozen

Mainly cloudy, -2°, moderate E.

Alan doing the Marsh again today with 3 Stonechat, 2 Little Grebe, 2 Kingfisher and the Teal arriving a little later, possibly had been somewhere on the river as the Marsh is frozen over.

Loren and I took a mid-afternoon walk out to the Lees. Initially 2 Raven flew overhead and the area between Aston and the Lees held around a 1000 Gulls. With some loafing in the fields and some following a plough.

Most were quite distant with the majority being Lesser Blackback Gull but managed to find 2 Herring Gull, 3 Common Gull, 8 Black-headed Gull and a single adult Yellow-legged Gull. There may well have been others out there but too distant for an ID.

Very little else in the area. A small flock of Fieldfare at the Lees and Loren found a Stonechat on the walk back between the railway and Manor Farm.

If you look hard enough you can see some of the Gulls, Courtesy Loren ↕

Stonechat, courtesy Alan

Song Thrush in the garden ↕

Before the rain & snow

Cloudy, 3°, light S.

2 Stonechat still present on the hill and 2 Raven flew south and approx. an hour later 2 flew north (possibly same 2).

A Yellow-legged Gull in field out at Lollingdon with 6 Lesser Blackback Gull.

Quite a few Fieldfare and Redwing around and several Reed Bunting, Yellowhammer, Pied Wagtail and Meadow Pipit.

2 Kestrel flew west over the hill and being harried by a Red Kite.

A Little Egret also seen out at Lollingdon.

Have noticed a lot of Jackdaw activity around our end of the village with several groups exploring chimney stacks on houses.

A Muntjac Deer feeding next to the garden this afternoon.

 Stonechat

 Raven

 Little Egret

Muntjac Deer