A Stonechat day

Sunny intervals, 14°, breezy W.

7 Stonechat found today with 3 on Lollingdon Hill, 2 near the cattle field out at Lollingdon and 2 found by Alan, 1 by the gravel workings and another near Green lane.

A light movements of mainly House Martin and a couple of Swallow over the hill and 2 Kestrel in the area.

A lot of Meadow Pipit out at Lollingdon (100+) and 20+ Yellowhammer and 5 Reed Bunting and 30+ Skylark scattered around the fields.

6 Chiffchaff between the village and Lollingdon.

Yesterday from Tony Rayner: 3 Grass Snake, 45 Slow-Worm, several Wood Mice and Bank Vole. Plus a Brimstone, Small Copper and Common Blue butterflies.

Dragonflies: Several Common Darter.

Butterflies: a few Large and Small White.

Stonechat courtesy Alan

Stonechat

Brimstone courtesy Tony Rayner

Grass Snake & Slow-Worm courtesy Tony Rayner

Brown Hare courtesy Alan

A quieter day

Sunny spells and a few showers, 13°, breezy WSW.

A Wheatear found by Michael Pocock this morning in the Silly bridge area and may have been a “Greenland” Wheatear judging by the description. Also around 250 House Martin passed thru in a space of around 40 minutes. Thanks

Both Alan and I were along the Bunk line today with our visits overlapping but very little noted.

Lots of Meadow Pipit present approx. 250 in total and good numbers of Skylark, Pied Wagtail, Yellowhammer and several Reed Bunting.

Only 1 Chiffchaff noted and a reasonable number of Swallow and House Martin moving thru.

Dragonflies: a single Southern Hawker seen by Alan and no butterflies noted.

A Grey Heron from yesterday courtesy Alan.

Stonechats, a Merlin and a Redstart

A sunny start but with more rain on the way, 16°, breezy SW.

Found out my waterproof boots are no longer waterproof and not ideal for the walk to Lollingdon today as still a lot of surface water around! Time to get a new pair I think.

Alan along the Bunk line today and 3 Stonechat near the gravel pit, most of the geese have dispersed and only a few Egyptian Geese over. A Kingfisher, several Meadow Pipit, Skylark and Chiffchaff and a handful of Swallow and House Martin.

I was on Lollingdon hill for around 3 hours along with Tony W for a short time.

3 Stonechat present along with a Common Redstart. The Redstart initially heard calling from a Hawthorn on the top of the hill then seen briefly in a nearby hedge, managed to get a distant photo but poor quality.

A juvenile Merlin flew from east to west along the hill and then powered off south. Also seen by Tony as he arrived. 2 Kestrel hunting around the hill.

A lot of birds overhead today with 100+ Skylark seen, several Meadow Pipit and 40+ Pied Wagtail.

30+ Yellowhammer noted along with 6 Reed Bunting, 7 Chiffchaff and a single Blackcap.

A Kingfisher seen at Amwell spring.

A female Sparrowhawk seen a couple of times hunting near the Bullshole and a male flew thru the garden this afternoon.

Mammals: Brown Hare.

Dragonflies: 2 Southern Hawker and several Common Darter.

Butterflies: 1 Brimstone, 2 Large White, 5 Small White, 1 Red Admiral and 4 Peacock.

More Rain, More Geese.

Moderate to light rain, 10°, light SW.

Another thoroughly wet day and the geese numbers appear to be building up in fields along the Bunk line with the flock now joined by 60 – 70 Greylag Geese.

7 Grey Heron in the area and 6 Common Snipe flew over.

Also Swallow, House Martin, Meadow Pipit, Reed Bunting, Yellowhammer, Chiffchaff, Black-headed Gull, Lesser Blackback Gull, 100+ Starling, Blackcap etc. Per Alan.

Videos courtesy Alan Dawson ↕

A Wet One

Rain and rain with a lull after midday, 13°, light S.

Both Alan and I took the opportunity to get out along the Bunk line during a break in the rain. Most fields very soggy and some with laying water.

Lots of geese still around with 250+ Canada Geese, 1 Greylag Goose and around 40 Egyptian Geese (26 on the gravel pit) present in several fields.

Also a Grey Heron, 60+ Black-headed Gull, 3 Lesser Blackback Gull, c12 Pied Wagtail, 1 Grey Wagtail, 100+ Starling and several Meadow Pipit and Skylark.

2 Blackcap, 5-6 Chiffchaff, a Great-spotted Woodpecker, 2 Green Woodpecker, 12 Yellowhammer, c6 Reed Bunting and good numbers of Goldfinch.

Once the rain stopped a steady light passage of Swallow and House Martin, all heading south east towards where the cloud was clearing.

And distantly a flock of 60+ Lapwing and 100+ Golden Plover high over Cholsey hill all moving south east.

Dragonflies: 1 Southern Hawker.

                                  Black-headed Gull with worm

Egyptian Geese

Canada, Greylag and Egyptian Geese

Nice weather for Ducks…………and Geese

Almost constant light to moderate rain, 13°, breezy ENE.

A wildfowl day along the Bunk line/Green lane area today with 41 Egyptian Geese and 26 Mallard in a field until spooked by a dog walker that left just 4 geese present.

And 24 Greylag Geese (16 & 8) flew over and a lot more Mallard flying around.

Other than that there was a small passage of Swallow and House Martin moving thru, totalling around 60 birds.

5 Chiffchaff, 20+ Meadow Pipit, 10 Yellowhammer and a single Reed Bunting also noted.

Alan out this afternoon and the Egyptian Geese seem to be distributed over the area with 5 at the gravel pit and several more back in the original field along with several Mallard and a short while later 20+ Canada Geese arrived.

Butterflies: a single Red Admiral.

Camera not taken out today due to wet conditions! However Alan took his and grabbed this shot of Egyptian Geese on the gravel pit.

Quiet start to Rocktober

Sunny intervals, 14°, light breeze WSW.

3 Stonechat still present out at Lollingdon and 3-4 Chiffchaff with just a few Meadow Pipit present. A good passage of Swallow and House Martin, with House Martin being in the majority. Up to 200 birds passed over in just under 2 hours.

A few Skylark and Pied Wagtail moving but little else.

Mammals: Brown Hare.

Dragonflies: a few Common Darter.

Butterflies: a few Large and Small White and 1 Red Admiral.

Common Darter ↕

Mipit Fest

Overcast with low cloud at first then clearing to sunny spells, warming up to 17°, light W.

Lollingdon Hill was quite lively with 100+ Meadow Pipit present and many more overhead, 250-300 in total. 3 Stonechat, 1 Wheatear, 2 Corn Bunting, 10 Yellowhammer, 2 Reed Bunting, 2 Blackcap and several Chiffchaff today.

3 Raven on the north side of the hill and a Kestrel.

20+ Skylark and 5 Pied Wagtail overhead.

Another small flock of c12 Yellowhammer and 2+ Reed Bunting near Little Lollingdon.

Alan saw 2 more Stonechat along Westfield road and another 6 at a site nearby but out of the Parish. Also several Swallow and House Martin along the Bunk line.

Coal Tit in song, Whitehead Meadow.

Mammals: Brown Hare and Stoat.

Dragonflies: 2 Southern Hawker and several Common Darter.

Butterflies: several Whites and a Red Admiral.

Quite few Meadow Pipit pics today followed by a distant shot of the 3 Stonechat and the last 2 Stonechat from Alan.

Still rather quiet

Cloudy, 16°, light WNW backing W.

Not a great deal out there today with both Alan and me walking the Bunk line/Green lane area at different times.

The odd Chiffchaff, a single Blackcap and several small flocks of Swallow and House Martin passing thru.

The small flock of Yellowhammer present and a Reed Bunting with them.

Several Meadow Pipit around and approximately 20 Skylark and a few Pied Wagtail overhead.

A small flock of 12 Black-headed Gull and 2 Lesser Blackback Gull at CSW.

Dragonflies: 1 Southern Hawker and a couple of Common Darter.

Butterflies: several Whites, 1 Small Tortoiseshell, 1 Red Admiral and 1 Small Heath.

Meadow Pipit

Garden toys

Today in Tony’s Garden.

Nothing much on the bird front except for a lot of Canada Geese flying over.

Butterflies: in our meadow - Small White 2, Large White 1, Red Admiral 1, Small Copper 5.

Reptiles: Grass Snakes 6, Slow-worms 31.

Small mammals: Wood Mice found in 3 places. Bank Voles found in 3 or possibly 4 places.

I continue to find Fox toys in our meadow - must be from nearby gardens.

These are toys that a Fox has been bringing into Tony's garden.

Sunday best

 A few from Alan today from around Cholsey.

Stonechat

Lapwing flock, approx 100 ↕

Egyptian Goose

Summer has gone!

Cloudy with a few sunny periods and some light drizzle, 12°, fresh NNW.

The current weather has certainly put the mockers on any meaningful birding over the last few days with a biting northerly airflow.

A late afternoon walk along the Bunk line/Green lane area proved somewhat fruitless.

The only migrants noted were a single Chiffchaff calling and a lone Swallow passing overhead.

Apart from larger birds such as Corvids, Kites, Wood Pigeons and a single Lesser Blackback Gull there was nothing else in the air and apart from the odd Bumble Bee, no insects!

Even small birds were inconspicuous with just Wren, Robin and Dunnock heard occasionally.

Tony Rayner was fortunate to have 4 Small Copper butterflies in his garden today.

This was the only thing that stayed still long enough. A Shaggy Inkcap.

Little Egret

Sunny spells, 13°, very breezy NW.

Pretty dire out there today with the fresh wind deterring anything from showing. The only saving grace was that Alan found a Little Egret, seen flying over the Bunk line towards the Hithercroft area.

Lollingdon hill was very quiet with a couple of Meadow Pipit and 6 House Martin over.

Nearby the only thing of note was a single Chiffchaff.

Dragonflies: 2 Common Darter.

Butterflies: 2 Small White and 1 Speckled Wood.

Photo from last year

A change in the weather and quieter

Sunny spells then clouding over, 14°, moderate SW.

A lot cooler and windier than of late and reflected in the lack of insects around.

Both Alan and I out along the Bunk line/ Green lane area today and not a lot noted.

Alan saw a Hobby over the new gravel workings and I saw presumably the same bird a little later spooking a flock of Starling a bit further south.

A fair few Chiffchaff and Meadow Pipit around plus a light movement of Swallow and House Martin overhead and a single Blackcap and the usual flock of Yellowhammer noted.

Dragonflies: 1 Southern Hawker and several Common Darter.

Butterflies: a handful of Large and Small White, 1 Red Admiral and 1 Comma.

Comma

Hobby (courtesy Alan)

Chiffchaff (courtesy Alan)

Meadow Pipit

Yellowhammer

Chiffchaff & Stonechat

Sunshine again then clouding over, 22°, light SSW.

Is this going to be the last day of summer with autumn forecast to start?

Alan found a Stonechat along the Bunk line this morning which I soon caught up with. Seen close to the junction of Green Lane.

A small flock of c10 Yellowhammer present, several Chiffchaff and a single Blackcap.

Overhead a few small flocks of Swallow and House Martin and several each of Meadow Pipit, Pied Wagtail and Skylark.

A couple of Jay heard and a couple of vocal Buzzard.

Dragonflies: Southern Hawker and Common Darter.

Butterflies: Again several Large and Small White, a Small Copper, 2 Red Admiral and a Speckled Wood.

Chiffchaff ↕

Stonechat ↕