Sunday 28 September 2014

Friday/Saturday/Sunday update.

   So after a entertaining trip to Spurn on Thursday (plenty of cracking birds including the Masked Shrike ) it was back to the patch, one thing is for certain we are no Spurn Point but we still see migrants come through our little patch of nowhere .
Friday appeared to be the day the local Swallows and House Martins left ,there were at least 80 plus Swallow and 40 plus House Martins feeding over the pastures until they all moved south  on mass  .Time pressure meant I could not get around the whole patch and I had the feeling that were more birds to be found , so it was a bit frustrating to say the least .
Other migrants that were on the pastures or passed overhead were 44 plus Meadow Pipits, 4 Jay , 16 plus Skylark and a flock of 50 plus Woodpigeons.
In the bushes and hedges were 8 plus Chiffchaff ,12 plus Robin but in the short time I had I failed to find anything else other than the usual resident birds.
Around the field edges were the usual Green Woodpecker, Greater Spotted Woodpecker, a single Stock Dove, a flock of 102 Starling and a flyover Pied Wagtail.
So Saturday dawned in the usual benign way ,the weather seems to be stuck in a real rut at the moment and although dry its getting quite boring really, bring on some colder weather that's what I say.
Walking around the bushes and hedges in the early sunshine I checked out the warmer more moist hidden areas of the patch and found 12 plus Chiffchaff feeding ,17 plus Robin and the Autumns first Goldcrest which was in amongst a flock of 15 Long Tailed Tits
Looking on Twitter parts of Gloucestershire were seeing large numbers of Swallows and House Martins passing over. Only a few Swallows passed over and all  we could manage were 2 flocks of 14 and 10 and a single bird, thousands were passing at nearby watch points but not here today !
2 Mistle Thrush passed high over to the south calling as they went over ,their northern cousins will soon be with us anyday now I hope.
Starling are now regular and numbers will build as the winter visitors arrive so the first of these flocks were seen today 80 plus on pasture.
Two other Autumn migrants were about with  Skylarks 12 plus over heading south and small parties of Meadow pipits just 12 passing over this morning.
There were more Finches around and perhaps just a hint of some Autumn passage with 25 plus Linnet over and a southward bound flock of 10 Goldfinch .A pair of Bullfinch were in the usual place both male and female seen together.
I have read that there are large numbers of Jays are arriving in the country due to an Acorn failure so that will go some way to explaining why we are seeing them passing over on a regular basis at the moment ,another 2 were seen today.
The usual Woodpeckers were about with a Green and 3 Greater Spotted.
The best of the rest were 2 Pied Wagtail , Buzzard and 5 Stock Dove . The day finished with a Little Owl calling from the hedgerow beside the cottage at 8pm
Sunday was a carbon copy weather wise and to a lesser or greater extent so were the birds. I was however woken at 1.20 am by a calling Tawny Owl so I was out by 7am as soon as it got properly light .
Checking out the hedges and bushes I found a healthy 13 plus Chiffchaff ,another 15 plus Robins, and 2 Blackcap.
The star bird of the day was a Peregrine Falcon that passed west at 7.15am , they are winter visitors to Ashleworth Ham so this could be the first of the winter birds or just a passage migrant. Other birds of prey were a fine male Sparrow hawk and a female Kestrel calling as she passed over. A couple of Buzzards were soaring high above the cottage at around 10.30am .
Other migrants that passed over were 3 very high flying Mistle Thrush which were seen appearing from high north and heading due south, just 7 House Martins heading south east and a fast flying flock of 4 Swallows which zipped past Africa bound.
Skylarks are now becoming much more noticeable with 21 plus been around the patch some passed south whilst others gave the appearance that maybe they are our wintering birds.
It is nice to report that Meadow Pipits were aplenty on the patch today some passed over but a nice flock of 45 plus were in the top fields this morning they really are a very attractive bird when looked at closely, their creamy breast and those streaks ,very striking birds .The final total seen were 78 plus .
Pied wagtails have started to pass over now and although only 3 did today ,more will follow as we get into October
Just 1 Raven today was seen but 4 Jays were on the patch again.
The best of rest of todays birds were a Red Legged partridge, Green Woodpecker, Greater  Spotted Woodpecker, Stock Dove .So it would appear that the patch is under going a quiet period but with October things will get better soon .