A few migrants still

Cloudy, 16°, light ENE.

Fairly quiet on the hill today, a Wheatear still present, a Yellow Wagtail, 1 Blackcap and 7 Chiffchaff, also couple of Jay nearby.

Probably a Redstart out at Lollingdon, call heard a few times but could not locate the bird.

Up to 80 Hirundines overhead, mainly Swallow with a few House Martin and at least 2 Sand Martin.

A Little Owl seen by a dog walker.

Most of our local Swallow and House Martin at this end of the village appear to have departed.

Dragonflies: a couple of Common Darter.

Butterflies: a few Small White and Speckled Wood.

Back on the Hill

Sunny, 20°, light NE.

Back on the hill today and back to normality.

1 Wheatear, 1 Willow Warbler, 3 Chiffchaff, c20 Swallow overhead, 8 Long-tailed Tit and a Mistle thrush was all that was noted today.

The Nuthatches still visiting the garden and an Oak Bush Cricket in the garden.

Dragonflies: Common Darter.

Butterflies: very few, Large White, Small White, Common Blue, Speckled Wood.

Visit to Portland Sep 2015

A week’s visit to Portland.

It does not sound like many but 80 species for this week on Portland and this was just for the bill area.

A summary of the most notable species of the week were:

Birds: Rose-coloured Starling, Wryneck, Osprey, Balearic Shearwater, Firecrest, Barred Warbler, Turtle Dove, Nightingale, Ortolan Bunting, Long-tailed Skua.

Insects: Death’s Head Hawkmoth, Convolvulus Hawkmoth, Garden Tiger, Jersey Tiger, Wasp Spider, Southern Oak Bush Cricket, Great Green Bush Cricket, The Cosmopolitan, Red-legged Spider Wasp, European Beewolf, Hummingbird Hawkmoth, Diamond-spot Pearl.

Dawn at Portland Sunday 6th Sep

Final day with a LTS

Sunny, 18°, light NNW.

A beautiful dawn and sunny morning on our last day at Portland leaving around 13:00.

Another early movement of 18 Yellow Wagtail, 2 Grey Wagtail, 5 Tree Pipit 60+ Siskin.

Someone was actually sea watching today and approx. 08:00 he called a Long-tailed Skua moving west. A few of us managed a distant view as it then disappeared around the bill. Another distant Skua noted that was probably a Bonxie.

In between packing etc. we managed 3 Blackcap, 4 Common Whitethroat, a Reed Warbler, 1 Sedge Warbler, 1 Spotted Flycatcher and 2 Wheatear.

Mammals: 2 North Atlantic Grey Seal.

Dragonflies: Emperor and Common Darter.

Butterflies: Brimstone (a scarce butterfly on Portland), Large White, Common Blue, Red Admiral, Painted Lady and Meadow Brown.

Moths: Hummingbird Hawkmoth, Convolvulus Hawkmoth.

A good week on Portland with a lot of good birds, good insects and good company. Thanks to Martin and Glen. Cheers

 (courtesy Loren)

forgotten the name of this fly?

Lollingdon Hill and Cholsey Village: 6th Sep

1 Sedge Warbler,
1 Wheatear,
1 Sparrowhawk.

Thanks Tony W.

c20 Siskin in the East End of Cholsey.

Thanks Tony R.

Death's Head

Cloudy at first then sunny, 16°, light NNE.

Much the same start as yesterday:

10+ Yellow Wagtail, 6 Grey Wagtail, 5 Tree Pipit and 3 Siskin over moving south.

Then the day settled down to birding: 1 Nightingale, 1 Barred Warbler and a Turtle Dove were the pick of the bunch, at least for me.

20+ Willow Warbler, 3 Chiffchaff, 4 Common Whitethroat, 3 Blackcap, 1 Reed Warbler, 1 Sedge Warbler, 1 Garden Warbler, 2 Spotted Flycatcher, 2 Pied Flycatcher, 6 Wheatear and 2 Whinchat.

1 Grey Heron, 1 Golden Plover, 1 Greenshank and a Whimbrel.

A light but steady passage of Swallow and 4 Swift.

The sea was very quiet again except for an early evening Arctic Skua that flew west.

Dragonflies: Emperor and Common Darter.

Butterflies: Large White, Small White, Common Blue, Red Admiral, Painted Lady, Speckled Wood and Meadow Brown.

Moths: Death’s-head Hawk-moth, Jersey Tiger.

Other: Wasp Spider, Oak Bush Cricket, Southern Oak Bush Cricket.

Death's-head Hawkmoth

 Oak Bush Cricket

Jersey Tiger above & below

Wasp Spider

Whitethroat

Variety rather than numbers

Cloudy with a few sunny periods, 17°, light NNW.

The day dawned cloudy and still with very little migration evident, however it proved to be an active and interesting day with not many photos taken.

A few early migrants moved off with the usual species of 18 Yellow Wagtail, 9 Tree Pipit and 2 Grey Wagtail and later 3 Siskin.

A shout from Martin alerted us to an Ortolan Bunting over the Crown estate fields which then flew up to the Privet hedge.

3 of us went up there an inadvertently flushed the bird which then flew off to above Culverwell and has not been seen since, to my knowledge.

Anyway that over with the day settled down to some steady birding with one or two locals moaning about the lack of birds, however…………………………………:

2 Pied/White Wagtail, 5 Wheatear, 1 Whinchat, 3 Spotted Flycatcher, 2 Pied Flycatcher, 1 Sedge Warbler, 2 Reed Warbler, 2 Chiffchaff, 20+ Willow Warbler, 10 Common Whitethroat, 7 Blackcap, 1 Garden Warbler, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 1 Common Redstart, 1 Barred Warbler, 1 Wryneck and 1 Nightingale.

Again a steady flow of Swallow through the day with several groups of House Martin, 3 Sand Martin and a Swift.

Also: 1 Peregrine, 1 Sparrowhawk and 5 Kestrel.

The sea was again very quiet with Gannet being the only species moving.

Mammals: A Bat species, possibly one of the Pipistrelles but appeared larger.

Dragonflies: Emperor, Common Darter.

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

Other: Jersey Tiger, Convolvulus Hawk Moth, Brown Bush Cricket, Southern Oak Bush Cricket.

 Jersey Tiger (Loren)

 Emperor (Loren)

 Common Darter (Loren)

Bessie cat knapping on the bed of a vacant room!

Lollingdon:3rd Sep

Lollingdon:

4 Spotted Flycather,
1 Blackcap,
3 Chiffchaff,
A movement of Swallow and House Martin west - approx 75 birds.

Lollingdon Hill:

1 Whinchat,
2 Chiffchaff.

Thanks again to Tony and John.

A little quieter

Overcast, 16°, light to mod NNW.

An overcast and cooler day reflected by a lack of migrants.

Having said that day was made by a Barred Warbler found by John Lucas at Culverwell and a Turtle Dove that flew over and landed in the Crown Estate fields for a short time.

The sea was again exceptionally quiet with 2 Balearic Shearwater and 16 Common Scoter passing.

Just a few land migrants noted: A dawn movement of 10+ Yellow Wagtail, 14 Tree Pipit and a Grey Wagtail, a light but steady stream of Swallow with a few House Martin through the day, 1 Reed Warbler, 1 Grasshopper Warbler, 1 Whinchat, 2 Wheatear, 2 Blackcap, 4 Whitethroat and 10+ Willow Warbler.

Also seen: Sparrowhawk and a Grey Heron. A little excitement of a large raptor seen flying in off the sea only to turn out to be a Common Buzzard.

Butterflies: very few, Common Blue, Red Admiral, Painted Lady.

Other insects: Brown Bush Cricket and Great Green Bush Cricket, Old Lady (moth) and a Convolvulus Hawk Moth.

Swallows feeding young

 Convolvulus Hawk Moth

 Old Lady

 Grasshopper Warbler

 Brown Bush Cricket

Great Green Bush Cricket

Cholsey news:2nd Sep

Lollingdon:

2 Spotted Fycatcher,
1 Chiffchaff,
1 Common Redstart,
1 Whitethroat,
and a Little Owl.

Thanks to Tony Williams for phoning the info through and to John Lucas for passing it on.

Another day another mix

Sunny, 18°, light NNW.

Much the same as yesterday with 30+ Yellow Wagtail, 6 Tree Pipit and 25+ Siskin making their way out from dawn.

The day then settled down to looking for birds etc. around the bill area.

2 Peregrine Falcon, a Sparrowhawk and 6+ Kestrel.

10+ Wheatear, a Whinchat, 6 Stonechat, 3 Spotted Flycatcher, 8 Pied Flycatcher, 2 Common Redstart, 1 Chiffchaff, c20 Willow Warbler, 1 Sedge Warbler, 5 Whitethroat, 2 Blackcap and a Wryneck.

A steady stream of Swallow with several small flocks of House Martin through the day.

The only stuff seen on the sea today were 3 Common Scoter flying east and 2 Oystercatcher along the west cliffs.

Dragonflies: Emperor and Common Darter.

Butterflies: Large White, Small White, Common Blue, Holly Blue, Red Admiral, Painted Lady, Gatekeeper, Wall Brown, Meadow Brown.

Other species: Cosmopolitan Moth (from Southern Europe-North Africa), Garden Tiger Moth, Red-legged Spider Wasp, Barrel Jellyfish.

 Wryneck

 Willow Warbler in the early morning sun

 Peregrine

 Sparrowhawk

 Wall Brown

 Common Blue (Loren)

 Juv Stonechat (Loren)

 Red-legged Spider Wasp

 Garden Tiger Moth

 Barrel Jellyfish (Loren)

Portland Mix

Sunny, 20°, light NW.

The day dawned bright and sunny with most of yesterday’s migrants that had departed and an initial flurry of diurnal migrants on their way out.

Around 12 Yellow Wagtail, 3 Grey Wagtail, 5 Tree Pipit and 6 Siskin flew out over the Obs.

Other species noted today were: 10+ Willow Warbler, 1 Blackcap, 3 Pied Flycatcher, 5 Spotted Flycatcher, 2 Common Whitethroat, 10+ Wheatear, 1 Whinchat, 1 Common Redstart, 5 Stonechat, 1 Wryneck, 1 Firecrest, Little Owl, a Sparrowhawk, a Peregrine Falcon, c100 Swallow, c40 House Martin, 2 Swift and a Ringed Plover.

The sea today was exceptionally quite with a few Gannet, a Grey Heron and a Balearic Shearwater both flew west.

Dragonflies: Emperor and Common Darter.

Butterflies: Large White, Common Blue, Chalk-hill Blue, Holly Blue, Red Admiral, Painted Lady, Small Tortoiseshell and Meadow Brown.

Moths: to many to mention here, the pick is, Hummingbird Hawkmoth, Convolvulus Hawkmoth, Silver-Y, Oak Eggar and a rare migrant, a Diamond-spot Pearl.

A few photos from today including the most photographed hand in the UK?

 Pied Flycatcher

 Blackcap

 Tree Pipit

 Convolvulus Hawkmoth

 Diamond-spot Pearl

Firecrest

 Oak Eggar (courtesy Loren)

 Willow Warbler

 Emperor

Painted Lady