A quiet Bunk area

Sunny at first the cloudy, 17°, light N.

Hard work today in finding anything of note and a contrast to last Friday.

11 Chiffchaff, a Blackcap, 2 Meadow Pipit, 2 Raven, a Grey Heron and a flock of c120 Linnet etc.

Chiffchaff, Nuthatch and Coal Tit in garden.

Dragonflies: 1 Southern Hawker and several Common Darter.

Butterflies: 2 Brimstone, several Large White and Small White, 5 Red Admiral, 1 Peacock and 2 Speckled Wood.

Bunk

Overcast, 15°, light E.

Bunk area: c15 Swallow and 50+ House Martin over. 14 Chiffchaff, 4 Blackcap, 2 Common Whitethroat, a Lesser Whitethroat, a Garden Warbler, 2 Yellowhammer, 7 Siskin, 14 Greenfinch, 2 Grey Wagtail, c20 Pied Wagtail, 6 Meadow Pipit, a Curlew over, 2 Raven, 2 Grey Heron, 6 Cormorant over, 2 Egyptian Geese, several Greylag and Canada Geese etc.

Tawny Owl in garden @ 21:10.  

Butterflies: 2 Red Admiral.

Lollingdon

Sunny periods, 17°, light ENE.

A walk out to Lollingdon and back.

30+ Meadow Pipit in a weedy field, 4 Stonechat nearby,7 Mistle Thrush, 17 Chiffchaff, 24 Swallow and 32 House Martin over, a Grey Wagtail and 16 Grey Partridge.

Several Siskin over Church Road. Per RB.  

Dragonflies: Southern Hawker and Common Darter.

Butterflies: numerous Whites, several Red Admiral and Speckled Wood and a single Gatekeeper.

VizMig

Mainly cloudy, 17°, light NE.

A couple of bouts of VizMig from the garden:

15:00-15:30, 15 Swallow and 6 House Martin.

17:45- 18:15, 18 Swallow, 38 House Martin, 1 Sand Martin & 14 unidentified Hirundines.

Local movement, 2 Canada Geese and 100+ Lesser Blackback Gull.

Archive Pic

Quiet

Sunny periods, 15°, light NNW.

Pretty quiet along the Bunk area today. A Green Sandpiper flew from the gravel pit area, a Bullfinch nearby, 4 Swallow over and 2 Yellowhammer and 5 Chiffchaff elsewhere.

Dragonflies: Southern and Migrant Hawker.

Butterflies: Small White, Red Admiral and Speckled Wood.

Insects: European Hornet.

Lazy Sunday

Sunny spells, 13°, light NNW.

A single Swallow over at 16:40, a Chiffchaff still present in the garden, a Nuthatch visiting and a flyover Grey Plover heard calling heading east at 20:15.

Bunk

Sunny, 22°, light S.

A quiet time along the Bunk area. Hirundine passage was light with a lot of birds too high for naked eye and petered out around midday. Roughly 100 birds counted, a mix of Swallow and House Martin.

The first Siskin of the autumn with 5 overhead and a few Meadow Pipit passing through.

An increase in Skylark, Pied Wagtail and Black-headed Gull noted, 6 Chiffchaff and 2 Blackcap.

Dragonflies: Migrant Hawker and Common Darter.

Butterflies: Brimstone, Large White, Small White, Red Admiral and Speckled Wood.

A bit of VizMig

Mostly cloudy, 20°, breezy SW.

Whilst sorting a few bits in the garden around midday I noticed a number of Hirundines passing overhead so decided to do a bit of VizMig.

Over the next 2+ hours, counted c175 House Martin, c100 Swallow and 3 Meadow Pipit passing over in a roughly southerly direction.

A thin trickle of birds later throughout the afternoon of another 50 House Martin and 20 Swallow.  

8 Long-tailed Tit, a Goldcrest and a Chiffchaff in garden.

A Migrant Hawker, 3 Common Darter, a Hummingbird Hawkmoth and several Red Admiral and Whites present.

Bunk & GP.

Overcast, 18°, blustery SSW.

A disappointing walk out along the Bunk area today with very little noted.

10 House Martin, 6 Swallow and 8 Chiffchaff.

At the gravel pit I saw up to 200 Canada Geese and 32 Greylag Geese fly from the area, probably disturbed by heavy machinery.

A couple of years ago the gravel pit workers were co-operative and would feed us information and they set up a small viewing area outside of the boundary for birders to view one of the pits

You cannot now view the gravel pit area any more as the area they set up for us is now intentionally overgrown and has blocked our view.

On discussing this with the pit manager earlier this year he stated that due to a few birders gaining unauthorised access to the pit area they would effectively cease to co-operate with us.

I quite understand the health and safety aspect but this comes across as somewhat vindictive.

The gravel pit, although unwanted by the village has opened up a new habitat that we have not had in Cholsey before.

Little Ringed Plover and Sand Martin have since bred there with LRP not recorded breeding before and Sand Martin not since the 70’s.

A Rock Pipit was also found there, which was a first for Cholsey and several scarce wader and wildfowl species have also been seen/heard there.

So it’s a bit unfortunate that we now have deteriorated relations with the GP management.

Hirundines

Sunny spells, 17°, mod WSW.

In excess of 300 Hirundines moving between Church Road and Lollingdon today. predominately House Martin with a good number of Swallow.

Very little else in the windy conditions although approx. 10 Chiffchaff, 2 Mistle Thrush and 5 Yellowhammer noted.

Butterflies: a Small White, several Red Admiral and a Speckled Wood.

Weekend 13/14 Sep

Weekend weather mainly wet with little sunshine, 15-17°, with light to moderate wind.

Saturday: 16 House Martin, a Swallow, a Sand Martin and a Kestrel over the garden. Chiffchaff & Tawny Owl in.

Hedgehog and Common Pipistrelle.

Common Darter, Red Admiral, Small White and Hummingbird Hawkmoth.

Sunday: Yellow Wagtail over allotments. 2 House Martin over garden and a Chiffchaff in.

Another wet one

Sunshine and showers, 17°, fresh SW.

Along the Bunk Line this afternoon and fortunately missed most of the rain with a thunder storm passing a few kilometres to the east, then another passing closer but to the west.

A Wheatear, 2 Yellow Wagtail, several Pied Wagtail, a Grey Wagtail, 3 Meadow Pipit, 16 Chiffchaff (incl 2 in garden), 2 Blackcap, a single Common Whitethroat, 2 Yellowhammer, 26 Swallow, 30 House Martin, a single Sand Martin, 3 Raven etc.

Dragonflies: A Common Blue Damsel and a Migrant Hawker.

Butterflies: few: Large and Small White, 6 Red Admiral, a Speckled Wood and a Meadow Brown.

Moths: Hummingbird Hawkmoth.

A wet one

Variable cloud and heavy showers, 16°, light to moderate S.

A trip out to Lollingdon and birding in between the rain showers.

Managed to cover most of the hill area: a Spotted Flycatcher, a Lesser Whitethroat, Blackcap, 6 Chiffchaff, 3 Yellow Wagtail overhead, 2 Wheatear, 2 Stonechat, a Whinchat, Raven etc and c50 Swallow and 6 House Martin over.

A few Geese flying over the garden early evening, 20+ Canada, 20+ Greylag and at least 1 Egyptian Goose.

Moths: Hummingbird Hawkmoth in garden.

Cholsey

Mainly sunny, 20°, light S.

Whinchat, Bunk Line yesterday. Per MA.

Muntjac with a fawn in the garden.

Today:

2 Yellow Wagtail over garden and a juv Chiffchaff in garden.

Bunk line, 3 Chiffchaff, Grey Wagtail and a Yellowhammer.

Home & Away

Cloudy with a thunder storm mid-morning, 21°, light ESE.

Our final day at the Obs for this autumn and left around midday. A sea-watch early morning and then packing up to come home with a bit of birding in between.

2 Arctic Skua, a Red-throated Diver, c30 Balearic Shearwater, 2 Manx Shearwater, 3 Common Scoter, 2 Oystercatcher and c15 “Commic” Tern.

VizMig: c50 Yellow Wagtail, 5 Grey Wagtail, 10+ Swallow, 6 Sand Martin, 4 House Martin, a Swift, 4 Meadow Pipit, a Tree Pipit, plus 2 Sparrowhawk, a Chiffchaff, 4 Willow Warbler, 2 Wheatear and a Blackcap.

Dragonflies: Common Darter.

Butterflies: Red Admiral and Wall Brown.

Moths: Striped Hawkmoth, Convolvulus Hawkmoth, Hummingbird Hawkmoth, a Scar Bank Gem and a Latticed Heath.

A catchup from Tony Williams whilst I’ve been away.

Lollingdon Hill: 250+ Swallow and House Martin over.

Bunk area: Spotted Flycatcher, Lesser Whitethroat, Common Whitethroat, several Blackcap, and 4+ Chiffchaff.

5 House Martin, 3 Swift and a skein of c50 Canada Geese over Church Road this evening.

Sunrise

Convolvulus Hawkmoth

Latticed Heath courtesy John Lucas

Scar Bank Gem courtesy John Lucas

Tonight's partial Lunar Eclipse