Tuesday October 24 - Morton Bagot (and a few garden moths)

 A cloudy morning with hardly a breathe of wind (maybe southerly) following some overnight rain. It was too gloomy a day for getting the camera out, but pretty lively for birds.

I was surprised to see that the eclipse male Pintail was still present along with similar numbers of duck to Sunday. There were also lots of freshly released Pheasants which had presumably strayed from the shooting grounds near Castle Nurseries.

All this potential prey was no doubt what has encouraged the adult Peregrine to reappear and take up residence on the pylons.

Peregrine

Shortly after leaving the Peregrine to continue to survey his domain I noticed a panic of Woodpigeons and Jackdaws towards the north end of Bannams Wood. Looking through the melee I spotted the cause, a Goshawk. The views were much more distant than I had had of the one in August but it shared that bird's jizz and size. I watched as it powered into the wood and disappeared. I couldn't tell whether it was an adult or an immature due to distance and light.

So that's not a bad start. There didn't seem to be a great deal of overhead passage, but the site was still alive with birds. Thrushes were constantly flushing from the hawthorn hedgerows and I estimated about 70 Redwings, 20 Fieldfares, and a good number of Song Thrushes and Blackbirds. It's easy to forget that many of them are also migrants from the continent.

One of many Song Thrushes which accompanied the Redwings

Plenty of the usual finches were also in evidence, although there may have been fewer Redpolls than on Sunday. There was no sign of the Barn Owl, but I did hear a day-hooting Tawny Owl, and in a different part of the site discovered a cacophony of Blackbirds and other species mobbing something in a dense area of woodland edge. There was almost certainly an Owl in there, but I was unable to see it. This short piece of video gives an idea of what it was like.

This was the sort of day when you can be happy with what you see, but wondering what you've missed. Its just impossible to get a good look at everything.

Other noteworthy migrants included three Chiffchaffs, a male Blackcap, and small numbers of Meadow Pipits, Reed Buntings, and Chaffinches.

Meadow Pipit

One surprise was the apparent absence of any Stonechats, but as I say there are likely to be plenty of birds I missed.

Finally, I put the moth trap out, ignoring all the warning signs (a cool night and a full moon), and duly caught just three moths; two November Moth ag, and a Red-line Quaker. Both were new for the year, but are more or less annual in the garden.