A few hours on the Hill

Cloudy with a few sunny spells, 18°, light WNW.

A pleasant walk out to Lollingdon today and plenty of Swift on the move with several hundred passing over the hill during a 2 hour period and the occasional family groups of Swallow.

A young Peregrine Falcon also overhead and flew south east.

2 Common Redstart still present and 2 Blackcap, 3 Common Whitethroat, 3 House Sparrow and several Chiffchaff in the same hedgerow.

Redstart: “the word start is a morph of the middle English stert or the old English steort meaning tail.”

3 Lesser Blackback Gull over the pig fields.

A Little Egret reported from last week between the village and Lollingdon.

Butterflies: Large White, Small White, Common Blue, Holly Blue, Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock, Comma, Speckled Wood, Marbled White, Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown and Ringlet.

Common Whitethroat

Common Redstart ↕

A couple of walks

Overcast and light rain, 18°, light NNW.

Took the car into Wallingford for MOT & service this morning and walked back via the river, Bow Bridge and Caps Lane.

A few Black-headed Gull, a single Common Tern and a couple of Egyptian Geese along the river.

3 Kingfisher, Sedge Warbler, Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Jay, Yellowhammer and Reed Bunting all noted and Swift, Swallow and House Martin overhead most of the time.

Another walk back to Wallingford later in the day to pick the car up. This time a walk along the Bunk line to Winterbrook.

A few Yellowhammer in song, a few Chiffchaff, Common Whitethroat and a Blackcap.

Yellowhammers seem to be the only consistent songster at the moment with a few other species joining in from time to time.

2 Yellow Wagtail Cholsey Hill.

A good number of Swift over Wallingford with flocks wheeling around over the river near the OU boathouse, another flock over the Hithercroft area and more over the town centre.

Dragonflies: Banded Demoiselle.

Butterflies: few out in the cloudy conditions: Large White, Small White, Common Blue, Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock, Marbled White, Gatekeeper and Meadow Brown.

Song Thrush gathering food.

Redstarts & Ravens

Mainly cloudy with a few sunny spells, 21°, light WSW.

2 Common Redstart seen on the hill today, an adult male and a young bird. Also 2 Raven visited for around 10 minutes before flying off towards Moulsford.

2 Kestrel nearby and a flock of Mistle Thrush, at least 6 but maybe more and all the usual suspects present.

Butterflies: Small Skipper, Brimstone, Large White, Small White, Common Blue, Holly Blue, Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock, Comma, Silver-washed Fritillary (Millennium Wood), Speckled Wood, Marbled White, Gatekeeper and Meadow Brown.

Yellowhammer

Common Redstart (male & young)

 Raven ↕

 7-spot Ladybirds

Gatekeeper

30 up!

Dark Green Fritillary. 30th species of butterfly recorded in Cholsey so far this year. Per Alan Dawson.

A Bee, Beetle & Butterfly

Mainly sunny, 19°, light NNE.

A good day for butterflies with Tony Rayner counting 19 species in his garden today including White-letter Hairstreak.

And Tony Williams has found a bee species that he was not familiar with and neither are we.

Alan has identified it as a Scabious Mining Bee and am inclined to agree. BUT we may be proved wrong?

A Lesser Stag Beetle photographed by Edward Dawson aged 7. A budding wildlife photographer.

Thanks to Tony W for the bee info and Tony R & Alan for the photos and of course Edward.

Scabious Mining Bee

White-letter Hairstreak

Lesser Stag Beetle

Redstarts again

Cloudy with a few sunny spells, 17°, light to breezy NW.

Both Alan and I on the hill again today with 3-4 Common Redstart still present (2 ad male, 1 young bird and possibly a female).

Always distant and quite elusive.

Several Common Whitethroat, 2 Chiffchaff and a Blackcap in the same area of hedgerow.

2 Kestrel around the hill and the usual Buntings present and a Goldcrest with a Tit flock.

25 Black-headed Gull flew west, a mix of adult and young birds and several Swallows and Swifts overhead.

Mammals: Brown Hare.

Dragonflies: Banded Demoiselle and Southern Hawker.

Butterflies: Small Skipper, Brimstone, Large White, Small White, Brown Argus, Common Blue, Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock, Comma, Marbled White, Gatekeeper and Meadow Brown.

Common Redstart (m)

 Common Redstart ↕ (courtesy Alan Dawson)

 Corn Bunting

 Common Redstart

Common Whitethroat

Redstarts

Overcast with frequent light showers, 18°, light WSW.

Alan joined me on a busy hill today (social distancing observed) and between us we found 3 Common Redstart, 2 Stonechat, a Lesser Whitethroat, several Common Whitethroat, 1-2 Chiffchaff, 10 Mistle Thrush, 50+ Starling, a Kestrel and a Sparrowhawk.

Overhead, an almost constant flow of Swift, a few family groups of Swallow and the odd House Martin.

Nearby the Little Owl showed but was quite mobile, 16 Mistle Thrush and another flock of 50+ Starling.

The usual Yellowhammer, Reed Bunting, Corn Bunting and Blackcap all noted.

Mammals: Brown Hare.

Butterflies: between showers, Large White, Small White, Common Blue and Meadow Brown.

Apologies for the quality, birds were quite distant and pics heavily cropped.

 Ad male Common Redstart

Young Common Redstart

Black Rabbit (courtesy Alan Dawson)

All quiet

Mainly cloudy, 17°, breezy WSW.

Pretty quiet out there today. The usual Kestrel on the hill and nearby a flock of c50 Starling and 20+ Mistle Thrush.

A lot of Swift around today with well over 100 seen and the majority drifting south.

All the usual’s present.

Mammals: Brown Hare.

Butterflies: Small Skipper, Large White, Small White, Green-veined White, Brown Argus, Common Blue, Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock, Comma, Speckled Wood, Marbled White, Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown & Ringlet.

 Chiffchaff

 Buzzard

Mistle Thrush

A nice butterfly collage from Alan.
Clockwise: Brown Argus, Gatekeeper, Common Blue, Small Copper.

White-letter Hairstreak

Sunny spells, 19°, breezy WSW.

After a phone call from Tony Rayner this afternoon I was invited to see a White-letter Hairstreak. Actually at least 2 of them are present in his garden.

Spent a couple of hours there but unfortunately not to be seen.

This is the first confirmed record for this species since 1999, so a 21 year wait.

The garden was full of butterflies and a pleasure to see:

A couple of bird species of note were: Bullfinch and Kestrel.

Dragonflies: Azure Damselfly & Brown Hawker. Alan: Beautiful Demoiselle, Southern Hawker and Brown Hawker.

Butterflies: Small Skipper, Essex Skipper, Brimstone, Large White, Small White, White-letter Hairstreak, Brown Argus, Holly Blue, Common Blue, Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock, Comma, Marbled White, Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown and Ringlet. (All in Tony’s garden).

Plants: Bee Orchid and Pyramid Orchid. Lots of Marjoram in the garden that is attracting a large number of insects and all made its way there naturally.

 White-letter Hairstreak (courtesy Tony Rayner) ↕

 Brimstone

 Brown Argus

 Meadow Brown

 Marbled White

 Common Blue

Ringlet ↕

 Marjoram

Pyramid Orchid

Three

Three pics from the week end courtesy Alan Dawson.

Common Swift

 Southern Hawker

Beautiful Demoiselle (f)

A quiet one

Cloudy with a few sunny spells, 19°, breezy SW.

A little breezy today with butterflies etc sticking to sheltered spots. A shorter than average walk today along the bunk line/Green lane area.

Apart from good numbers of Swallow and House Martin and the odd Swift and a couple of Sand Martin, not a lot else going on.

Usual species present.

Dragonflies: Banded Demoiselle and Southern Hawker.

Butterflies: Small Skipper, Essex Skipper, Large White, Small White, Red Admiral, Peacock, Marbled White, Meadow Brown and Small Heath.

 Southern Hawker

 Peacock (underwing)

Essex Skipper

Red Admiral

 Common Whitethroat