Cholsey Marsh Cuckoo

              The Cholsey Marsh Cuckoo (thanks to Roger Wyatt for the photo)

Cholsey 31st May

Overcast, light rain, 15º, light W.

Lollingdon Hill, a busy day today so only a brief trip to the hill. A Linnet flock has grown to 32 birds over the week, mainly adults but a few young with them.

Usual Corn Buntings, Yellowhammers and Whitethroats present and 6 Swallows feeding low over the hedgerow during the rain.

A Roe Deer seen nearby.

Cholsey and Churn

Warm and sunny, 24º, light S. A distant thunderstorm seen to the west!

A mid morning visit to Cholsey Marsh, 8 Warbler species seen/heard and a Cuckoo roaming around the marsh, 2 Willow Warblers still singing, one on the marsh and the other on the opposite bank of the river. Hoping they will breed this year!

Whitethroat, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, Blackcap, Garden Warbler, Chiffchaff, Sedge Warbler and Reed Warbler.

Several Reed Buntings singing well and some Stock Doves cooing (at least that’s what I interpret it as) in at least 2 places. Also 3 Great-spotted Woodpeckers, 2 Grey Herons and a Kingfisher of note.

A couple of trips to Lollingdon Hill just turned up the local species, Corn Bunting, Yellowhammer, Linnet and Skylark.

Decided to take a look at Churn, when I arrived someone else had the same idea, as it was the young Roger Wyatt J. So for the next 2 hours or so we just stood there chatting and hoping for a decent Raptor to pass by. Roger did have a Peregrine shortly before I arrived and from then on it was Buzzards and Red Kites seen and a distant Curlew heard. Cheers Rog, good to see you!

Brimstone, Peacock, Small White, Small Tort, Holly Blue, Orange Tip, Red Admiral and a Small Copper butterflies seen and several Club-tailed Dragonflies, 3 Broad-bodied Chasers and many Banded Demoiselles seen along the river.

A couple of Song Thrush frequenting the back garden again and several Pipistrelle bats around recently.

                                          Banded Demoiselle

First Quail

Warm and sunny, 24º, light S.

A walk around Lollingdon Hill this afternoon produced my first Quail for the year in Cholsey, calling from a crop on the north side of the hill.

Only other bird of note was a flyover Yellow Wagtail.

Cows cause power outage!

Still warm and sunny, 24º, no appreciable wind.

Within 30 minutes of arriving back home we had a power outage in my part of Cholsey.
Apparently some Cows had been put out in a meadow about 100m from here and one or more of them had rubbed up against one of the poles and caused it to move and 2 of the 3 power lines snapped. South Moreton was also without power as well as the NW end of Cholsey.

A couple of farm hands appeared and moved the cows to another meadow and the electricity company were quick off the mark.

It has taken the electricity company 7 hours to sort it as power has just resumed at 23:00!

Great living in rural Oxfordshire, full of surprises!

Interestingly sat in the dark and quiet I could hear a Grey Heron, Moorhen and Tawny Owl calling in the meadow and another more distant Tawny.

I stopped off at Lollingdon Hill on the way back, apart from the usual there was a flock of 22 Linnet on the hill and 2 Whitethroat.

 A couple of Common Swift taken over the week end.

Baby Blue Tits

A brood of 12 baby Blue Tits ringed in Cholsey today. (RB).

Lollingdon.

Sunny, 25º, light NW.

Lollingdon.

A walk around the fields at Lollingdon today in the sunshine turned up the expected species, Linnets, Yellowhammers etc. The only surprise was a Lesser Whitethroat singing from a hedgerow.

A Large Red Damselfly on Lollingdon Hill and Holly Blue, Orange tip, Brimstone, Small Tort, Peacock, Small White and a very brief glimpse of what I thought was a Painted Lady!

Cholsey, 22nd May

Sunny, 24º, light NW. About time!

A walk this afternoon along the river at Cholsey marsh produced most of the usual birds, a Lesser Whitethroat seen near Bow Bridge, a Kingfisher, a Hobby and 3 Willow Warblers were of note. Willow Warbler may be breeding on the marsh this year as normally they just pass through on migration. They have bred before but not for the past few years. There are currently two singing on the marsh and one on the opposite bank and have been present since the last week of April. Fingers crossed.

Lollingdon Hill produced a flyover Yellow Wagtail, a Hobby and the usual Corn Buntings etc.

A Song Thrush seen feeding a fledged young in the garden and several House Sparrows dust bathing in some gravel out the front.

A Spotted Flycatcher seen briefly in the meadow, I hope it is the returning pair to repeat last year’s successful breeding.

Comma, Brimstone, Small Tortoiseshell, Small White, Orange Tip, Speckled Wood butterflies all seen today and the first dragons of the year with several Banded Demoiselles along the river.

                                   Willow Warbler

                            Corn Bunting (above and below)

                                         Whitethroat

Cholsey 21st May

Sunny spells, 18º, light NNW. Getting warmer.

A quick look on Lollingdon Hill proved quiet, a few Corn Bunting around, also Yellowhammer.

A Hobby seen today along the Wallingford rd. (thanks to Michael Pocock).

Lots of Cockchafers around tonight!

                                  Corn Bunting (above and below)

                                         European cup winners!

Chelsea win European Champions League

Just had to post this one!

Chelsea achieved a dramatic Champions League final victory over Bayern Munich following a penalty shoot-out at the home of the German side.

Bayern looked to have won the game in normal time when Thomas Mueller headed home in the 83rd minute.
But shortly after, Didier Drogba headed in to take the game to extra-time.
Chelsea keeper Petr Cech saved Arjen Robben's penalty in the extra 30 minutes and Drogba scored the decisive spot-kick in the shoot-out.

Rock'n'roll Chelsea

Cholsey 18th May

Cuckoo heard regular on the proposed gravel site and a steady movement of Yellow Wagtail, also a Song Thrush with a nest full of young and plenty of snails to feed on.

Thanks to Tony Rayner for the info.

Lollingdon hill quiet but a Peregrine Falcon along Westfield rd today.

Thanks to Roger Wyatt for the info.

Cholsey, 17th May

Cloudy, 14º, light SSE.

An early visit to Cholsey marsh from 04:30 to 06:30, on arrival I could hear a Cuckoo and Grasshopper Warbler amongst the noise of mainly Sedge Warblers. I walked from one end of the marsh to the other trying to pick out everything in song or that was visible.

2 Great-spotted Woodpeckers, 4 Grey Heron, and 4 Stock Dove, seen,

Then: Cuckoo, ranging over a fair distance from the marsh to the 4 Arches then heard over the river in Little Stoke.

Green Woodpecker,

1 Lesser Whitethroat,

24 Sedge Warbler (+ more on opposite bank),

1 Grasshopper Warbler,

7 Whitethroat (+2 opposite bank),

3 Garden Warbler,

2 (pos 3) Reed Warbler,

2 Willow Warbler (+1 on the opposite bank),

6 Blackcap,

7 Chiffchaff,

12 Wren,

Treecreeper,

5 Blackbird,

3 Song Thrush,

2 Robin,

7 Chaffinch and

8 Reed Bunting.

3 Tufted Duck flew downriver, and then returned! A Kingfisher, 30+ Canada Geese, 10+ Greylag type Geese, 2 Mute Swan, 4 Great Crested Grebe and several Coot and Moorhen.

A quick look on Lollingdon Hill later in the day proved quiet, 2 Pied Wagtail gathering food, 2 Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Robin, Blackbird, Whitethroat, Yellowhammer and Corn Bunting and a Buzzard flew over.

Young Starlings seen in the meadow this afternoon.

                                  Pied Wagtail

                                         Goldfinch

Cholsey, 16th May

Sunny spells, 14º, light to fresh NW. Still a little chilly!

Farmland, a few more Whitethroats around now, also Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Yellowhammer, Skylark and Linnet frequent.

A family group of Long-tailed Tits mobbing a Tawny Owl that flew across a track in front of me and disappeared into an Ivy covered tree.

One field of Oil seed had 8 singing Reed Buntings in and a pair of Yellow Wagtail present.

The “reedy ditch” had 7 singing Sedge Warbler and a Reed Warbler, another Reed Warbler seen also.

2 Hobbys seen over the Lees and a fair number of Buzzards around Red Kite, Sparrowhawk and Kestrel seen.

Lollingdon Hill now rather quiet, just the usual 2 Pied Wagtail (carrying food now), 2 Grey Partridge and a few Linnet. Corn Buntings (3 singing), Yellowhammers (2 singing), 2 Whitethroats and a Blackcap nearby.

Swallows, Swifts and House Martins regular overhead hawking insects.

The Garden also quieter now, a pair of Robins collecting food and a Wren seen carrying food as well. A couple of  House Sparrows (unusual) in the garden this afternoon along with the 2 Mallards that are regular visitors and at least one of the garden nest boxes has a pair of Blue Tits in residence.

Chaffinch, Greenfinch and Goldfinch still visiting feeders but in lesser numbers and 3 Dunnock and a pair of Great Tits regular.

A Grey Squirrel present in the garden and intimidating the Wood Pigeons present but no match for the regular pair of Carrion Crows nor the Mallards’ that are quite capable of seeing the squirrel off.

One of the 2 House Martins nests at Marymead is in use so far this year.

Mistle Thrush, Song Thrush, Starlings and up to 6 Blackbirds feeding in the meadow and a Moorhen regular, Yellowhammer, Whitethroat, Chiffchaff and Blackcap heard singing nearby and a Green Woodpecker heard calling.

2 Hedgehogs visiting garden regularly for the past week.

A note on the 6 White Storks that visited Cholsey on the 26^th April. They were first seen near on the 17^th April near Abberly in Worcestershire, at that point there were 9 White Storks, then 6 seen near Colwyn Bay and Holywell in North Wales before tracking back and being seen on Cholsey Hill. From there they were tracked over Moreton, Didcot and Abingdon before settling down in the Newbridge/Standlake area where unfortunately one of them died after hitting some power lines.

They were then seen in East Sussex (Sidlesham) and tracked across Hampshire to Dorset and seen over Weymouth and Portland (the day after I left Portland) and then flew to Mordon Bog in Dorset on 6^th May. I have no further information from that point.

                                   Yellow Wagtail

                                   Blue Tit

                                         Robin

Eastender

From Tony Rayner:

Today we had our first Dingy Skipper of the year in our meadow, yet more evidence that we have a breeding colony.

Also last night was a good night for months; 17 species caught plus a couple of “micros” awaiting identification.

Reptile counts today were 8 Grass Snakes, 15 Common Lizards and 54 Slow-worms, also a female toad.

Last night there were Pipistrelle bats over the area and hawking prey over the area of the proposed gravel site.

Tony lives in the east of Cholsey!

Cholsey, 11th May.

Sunny spells, 14°, light to fresh WNW.

Another early visit to Cholsey Marsh produced two Cuckoos, vying with each other for the attention of a female that may or may not have been there; well at least I didn’t see her!

Lots of Warblers singing on the marsh, Grasshopper, Reed, Garden, Sedge, Willow, Blackcap, Whitethroat, Chiffchaff and a Lesser Whitethroat closer to Bow bridge.

A single Kingfisher flew towards Bow and 2 more flew across the river over the marsh.

A Water Rail seen moving in to the marsh and Treecreeper and Great-spotted Woodpecker noted.

2 Swallows hawking the marsh, a couple of Swifts overhead and a Grey Heron flew upriver.

A Green Woodpecker heard calling and a couple of Stock Dove seen also.

2 pairs of Bullfinches as usual in the blackthorn along the river bank and 5 singing Reed Buntings.

At least 2 Grebe nests and 2 Coot nests have been washed away as the river has risen.

Lindon homes in their wisdom have turfed and put bollards up on the verges along Ferry lane, Why!

More than likely to make the entrance look nice and tidy for their prospective buyers. To me it looks rather twee and sanitised and has lost some of its character, not to mention plants and insects that were there.

I doubt very much if any environmental impact was considered or any consultation with Cholsey Council taken.

A check on Lollingdon hill found little, a few Linnet and 2 Buzzards over. It looks as though Wheatear passage has dwindled out as none seen in the past two days! Watch them prove me wrong next week!