Wet & Sunny!

Lollingdon hill, 16^th Oct.

Rain, clearing by 14:00, 16º, light to mod S then fresh SW.

A rather wet Lollingdon hill early afternoon found 2 Wheatear and a Stonechat along the fence line hawking insects in the rainy weather; fortunately the sun came out just after 14:00 along with more insects.

Around 14:30 a female Merlin raced through the fields to the south and headed towards the downs above Aston Tirrold.

Other species noted were a Chiffchaff, 3 Blackbirds and a Song Thrush, 4 Meadow Pipit, 3 Yellowhammer, 30+ Linnet, 20+ Skylark, 7 Magpie, 2 Buzzards and 3 Red Kites.

Another Wheatear and a flock of 60+ Linnet on Cholsey hill.

A Peacock and Small White butterfly active on Lollingdon hill after the rain had ceased.

A Magpie visited the garden this morning and within 1 minute the Carrion Crow had chased it off, the crows still seem to be intolerant of any other corvid species in the garden. The 2 Moorhen and a single Stock Dove still visiting.

 

 Wheatear & Stonechat

Wheatear

 Stonechat

Stonechat

Churn

Sunny spells, 14º, light NW.

A walk out at Churn this afternoon proved fairly quiet, a Chiffchaff found out by the old field study centre was the only “migrant”. 3 Corn Bunting, 6 Yellowhammer, 20+ Skylark, 2 Jay, a Mistle Thrush and a flock of 250+ Starling feeding on Elderberries.

A couple of Goldcrest in the garden today and a Grey Wagtail along the brook next to the garden.

 

Wheatears & Stonechat

Rain, 10º, light SW.

2 Wheatear and a Stonechat were the highlights of a wet visit to Lollingdon hill today, also seen were c20 Skylark, a Chiffchaff, a Yellowhammer, 2 Mistle Thrush, 2 Meadow Pipit, 6 Pied Wagtail, a Buzzard, Red Kite and a flock of 40+ Greylag “type” Geese flew NW over the hill.

An adult and a very inquisitive juv Moorhen visiting the garden recently and a couple of Tawny Owl regular.

 Stonechat

 Wheatear

 Geese

 The inqisitive Moorhen

Richmond Park

A few hours spent in Richmond park near the Roehampton gate area on Friday 10th, nothing much of note in quality.................... 3 Chiffchaff seen, a Kingfisher and a Grey Wagtail, large numbers of Jackdaw (600+) and numbers of Ring-necked Parakeet (c200+), also noted 9 Green Woodpecker, 3 Great-spotted Woodpecker, a Mistle Thrush, 6 Jay, a Kestrel and a Meadow Pipit.

Also the usual Red and Fallow Deer seen, at this time of year it is the "rutting" season so not advisable to get too close to the Red Deer in particular, I came across one stag with a harem of 14 females and he was very protective towards them!

 Red Deer stag objecting to my presence

 Some of the hinds he was protecting!

 Jackdaws

 Grey Wagtail

Ring-necked or as they are commonly called Rose-ringed Parakeets feeding on chestnuts.

Stonechat still present

Overcast, 18º, light SSW, feeling cooler.

Lollingdon hill quieter today, Stonechat still present along with 3 Chiffchaff, 5 Pied Wagtail, 3 Meadow Pipit, a Kestrel, and 2 Buzzard and 5 Red Kite.

A Grey Wagtail for the last 2 days frequenting the brook adjacent to the garden, Coal Tit and Goldcrest in the meadow and a Chiffchaff heard calling nearby, the Moorhen and Stock Dove still visiting the garden.

 Stonechat

Kestrel

Lollingdon Hill, 6th Oct

Sunny spells, 20º, Light SW.

Arrived on the hill today (by bike) to a festival of raptors playing in the breeze with 11 Red Kite and 5 Buzzard in the air over the hill for around 30 minutes before most dispersing over a wider area.

Other species on the hill were, a single Stonechat to the south, 1 Chiffchaff, 14 Skylark, 18 Yellowhammer, 6 Meadow Pipit, 30+ Linnet, a Kestrel, 7 Magpie and a single Starling flew over.

Just Speckled Wood and Small White seen today.

Woken by a dawn chorus this morning of Robin and Wren in song, 2 Tawny Owls calling along with a Grey Heron calling whilst flying over and 2 Carrion Crows calling from the garden trees!
 

 Kestrel

 Yellowhammer

 Linnet

 Red Kites

 Red Kite & Buzzard

Buzzard

Lollingdon Hill, 5th Oct

Overcast, 18º, light SW

A couple of hours on the hill today produced 4 Wheatear (3 to the south and 1 to the west), a single Whinchat, a Blackcap feeding on Elderberries, 3 Pied Wagtail, 4 Meadow Pipit, 3 Chiffchaff, 1 Kestrel, 30+ Linnet and 1 Yellowhammer.

Speckled Wood, Small White and a single Red Admiral butterfly seen and an Orange Underwing Moth, also 2 Migrant Hawker and 4 Common Darter dragonflies.

 Kestrel

 Red Admiral

Red Underwing

Garden & Lollingdon hill 2nd Oct

Overcast at first then sunny spells, 18º, light SW.

A morning working in the garden today, both Green and Great-spotted Woodpecker present, a Tit flock passed through consisting of 8+ Long-tailed Tit, several Great and Blue Tit, 2 Goldcrest, at least 1 Coal Tit and a Treecreeper. Several small hirundine (a few Swallow but mainly House Martin) flocks passed overhead and at one point alarm call went up and 2 House Martin zipped through the garden hotly pursued by a Hobby but they managed to evade capture, and a Mistle Thrush nearby.

Around dawn this morning a Grey Heron was heard flying over and a flock of Canada Geese went over a little later.

A visit to Lollingdon hill this evening saw 3 Chiffchaff present, 12 Skylark, 8 Pied Wagtail, 10 Linnet, 3 Meadow Pipit, 14 Goldfinch, 1 Yellowhammer, a Green Woodpecker, 9 Stock Dove, 2 Buzzard, 2 Kestrel and 6 Swallow and 9 House Martin overhead.

Speckled Wood and Small White butterflies still on the wing.

Tawny Owls very vocal around the garden recently.

 Chiffchaff

North side of Lollingdon hill

Where there’s muck there’s birds.

Overcast, 18º, light ESE.

Lollingdon hill was quite busy today...........some “muck” had been spread on a field on the south side of the hill last week and it has now been ploughed in. Subsequently there were a lot of birds present on said field feeding on the insects that the “muck” had attracted.

At least 6 Wheatear (at last) present along with 50+ Pied Wagtail, 40+ Meadow Pipit and a very mobile flock of 30+ Linnet. Other species present were 2 Kestrel, a Buzzard, 2 Red Kite and a Great-spotted Woodpecker flew over. 20+ Chaffinch and a couple of Yellowhammer on the north side.

A walk in to Wallingford and back along the Bunk line last Friday (27^th), produced a Jay flying over the community hospital and several more en route, 4 Chiffchaff including 1 in song, 3 Green Woodpecker between the SF and the Church, a Great-spotted Woodpecker and 2 House Martin feeding over Cholsey SF.

Cholsey cemetery (26^th) hosted 3 Green Woodpeckers and coming out of the churchyard last week, saw approx 10 small Bats circling the Horse Chestnuts. (Per Ben Hobbs).

Several Pipistrelle feeding in Marymead garden recently.

Chiffchaff (courtesy RB)

 

Buzzard

Wheatear

Pied Wagtail

Churn

Hazy sunshine, 22º, very light SE.

Still rather quiet in South Oxfordshire no migrants to speak of, 2 Chiffchaff is about all.

As for other species, 5 Meadow Pipit seen, a flock of 40+ Skylark flew over, 2 Kestrel, a Mistle Thrush, 2 Pied Wagtail, 5 Yellowhammer, 30+ Goldfinch and several Red Kite and Buzzard.

24-spot Ladybird seen in Wallingford and a couple of other species recently.

 

Pics today by Loren Chaplin.

 

Quiet on the hill

Sunny spells, 20º, light SE.

A foggy start to the day but had cleared by midday......................Lollingdon hill again quiet this evening..................2 Chiffchaff, a Green Woodpecker (still), several Magpie, a single Red Kite and 2 Buzzard on the hill.

Common Darters present also Small White and Speckled Wood.

At least one Nuthatch and 2 Coal Tit present in the Castle gardens Wallingford at lunchtime today.

 Lollingdon Hill

A veiw from the hill towards the downs

Lollingdon

Overcast, 20º, light SE (rain earlier).

A couple of hours around Lollingdon today turned up 7 Chiffchaff with one briefly in song and at last another migrant warbler in a male Blackcap.

 7 Magpie again ranging widely around the hill, 4 Yellowhammer, 3 Meadow Pipit, 2 Linnet, 3 Grey Partridge, 1 Reed Bunting, a couple of Robins in song and overhead 500+ Hirundines passed through, the majority being Swallows and the rest House Martins, One flock consisted of over 100 birds.

A confrontation between a Cat and a Pheasant saw a bit of a standoff and a distant Buzzard being mobbed by a Carrion Crow.

A couple of other Buzzard, 2 Kestrel and plenty of Gulls around.

Where are all the migrants?

Churn & Lollingdon

Sunny spells, 20º, negligible wind.

 Migrants are very thin on the ground this autumn............ down to the weather?????

The Churn area was rather quiet the only migrant being a lone Yellow Wagtail that flew over, a couple of Meadow Pipit, a Chiffchaff, a Kestrel and 2 Buzzard in the area.

Lollingdon Hill was also quiet with a single Chiffchaff, a Green Woodpecker and 2 Magpie on the Hill and 2 Hobby high overhead.

Comma and Small White butterflies seen and quite a few Common Darter dragonflies around the hill.

Moorhen back visiting the garden again after an absence of several weeks!

 Green Woodpecker

High flying Hobbys