Thursday September 12

A cloudy morning with a couple of light showers. A light south-westerly.

I had a bit of a surprise on arrival as i discovered a BBC production company had commandeered by normal parking place, leaving me to decide to park at the church.

Naturally I enquired as to what they were filming, and it turned out to be an episode of Shakespeare and Hathaway, a sit-com which I must admit I haven't seen.

Back to the birds. There was another hefty tit flock to sift through, and I ended up with totals of nine Blackcaps and 14 Chiffchaffs. The flash field contained 33 Teal, seven Snipe, 44 Lapwings, 85 Mallard, about 100 Greylag Geese, and the Wigeon which has reappeared after going missing during the Alldayer.

The best birds for the day turned out to be in the horse paddocks at Netherstead, where two Wheatears hopped around the horses' hooves.

Wheatear

A very small horse was particularly fascinated by my new tripod.

The walk back added a flock of 40 Canada Geese heading south, and the first Stonechat of the autumn.

Sunday September 8

I wasn't able to visit the patch today, but Tony and the ringers did, and had another successful session.
They caught 137 birds of 12 species of which 16 were retraps. To me this is amazing because it shows the movement through the area of even common residents like Blue Tit. By this I mean that I might have been tempted to assume that the 60 + Blue Tits in the hedgerows today were the same as the Blue Tits they caught last week, but actually only nine of them were.

The full figures were (with retraps in brackets and the unbracketed figure being the total catch):

Sparrowhawk 1
Blue Tit 68 (9)
Great Tit 17 (4)
Chiffchaff 5
Blackcap 11
Whitethroat 2
Wren 5 (1)
Robin 3 (2)
Dunnock 1
Meadow Pipit 2
Greenfinch 8
Goldfinch 16

They also recorded a Barn Owl shortly after dawn.

I definitely should have got there earlier the day before.

Saturday September 7

This morning required an early start because it had been designated as the day of the autumn West Mids all-dayer competition. With Dave still away, and no ringers in action I was a solo team. I was also unable to arrive until 07.10, thus jeopardising my chance of recording any owls.

My first good bird of the day was a Redstart, but unfortunately I saw it fly into a hedge bordering the Henley road, and thus a kilometre short of the patch on my drive from home, so it didn't count. It wasn't long before I saw a decent bird which did count, as a Hobby flew low over Netherstead coppice. A little later I was pleased to see a couple of Song Thrushes, always tricky at this time of year.

A single goose flew over the ridge field some distance away. I thought I could see some white on its head, but as it turned south the upper surface looked grey and black chequered. I was thinking Barnacle Goose, but it just got further away, and I couldn't rule out hybrid goose. Very frustrating.

An absolutely massive tit flock went around the edge of the chat field, and I estimated 55 Blue Tits and 20 Great Tits along with smaller numbers of Long-tailed Tits, Chiffchaffs, and single Goldcrest and Willow Warbler.

I finally arrived at the Flash field, and quickly picked out a Little Owl.

Little Owl

The remaining incumbents were just the usual species, except that the Wigeon had gone. Mallard numbers are now up to 114, which suggests that there may be some shooting here once the season starts. I hope not. The only waders were 30 Lapwings, 10 Snipe, and two Green Sandpipers.

A trickle of Meadow Pipits were heading south, a total of 20 through the morning, while hirundines were in short supply until a flock of 36 House Martins went south, and 27 Swallows did likewise. A Kingfisher called from the Kingfisher Pool, and by the time I had returned home for a break at 10.30 I was on 52 for the day.

Forty minutes later I was back, parking at the church with a list of potential ticks in my head. Straight away a Grey Wagtail went over, and I heard a distant Raven. Then I started to get lucky, a Tawny Owl called from Bannams Wood. Down at the Chat field a couple of tackers turned out to be Lesser Whitethroats, and nearby a single Whinchat popped up.

Whinchat

I decided to walk across the weedy crop field in the hope of some buntings. This did produce 18 Reed Buntings and 22 Skylarks, but nothing new for the day until I scoped six Rooks on wires in the distance.

At the Kingfisher Pool a Roe Deer stood in my path, apparently ignoring me, its attention fixed on something over its shoulder. Eventually it became aware of me and it dashed off. I scanned for birds and spotted a disturbance in the water. To my utter amazement this proved to be an Otter, the first I have seen here. This was no doubt what had fixated the Roe Deer.

Otter

It came closer and closer, seemingly oblivious of me. It dived frequently, and on a couple of occasion it seemed to bring something to the surface and it would roll like a crocodile trying to pull chunks off its prey (as seen on the telly).

Eventually it was right under the bank, so close that I could hear it breathing out in long sighs after each dive. It finally swam out to the middle of the pool and dived before disappearing, having presumably caught my scent.

Two more birds were added, Starling and Nuthatch, before I returned home for lunch on 60 species with several "easy" ones still missing.

By late afternoon the sun was out, and the birds were hiding. Nevertheless it didn't take me long to add my last four birds; Sparrowhawk, House Sparrow, Collared Dove, and Chaffinch. I also had an exceptional sighting of six more Grey Wagtails flying south.

I also got my last butterfly tick of the year as I spotted a Small Copper in a hawthorn hedge.

Small Copper

So 64 species of birds in total, my most glaring miss being Coal Tit.

Bring on the next All Dayer.

Thursday September 5

A lovely sunny morning with a very light north-westerly and a good feel about it. I decided to park at the church for a change, and thought I had found a decent bird straight away as I spotted what I thought would prove to be a Wheatear on a barn roof. I took a hardly zoomed in shot in case it flew off, which is precisely what it did as I zoomed in.

Unidentified chat

I headed to the area where I thought the bird had gone, but could find only a Robin. At this point my focus shifted as Swallows called in alarm and I looked up to see a Hobby whizzing among them.

Hobby

My search for the chat sp failed to reveal anything and I was left to conclude that it may have been the Robin. Solace was provided by a Peregrine which powered across the road.

The rest of the visit turned up a nice selection of warblers, including 14 Chiffchaffs and four Blackcaps. A trickle of Meadow Pipits overhead was appropriate for the season, but the flash field turned up just the usual stuff; 32 Teal, 77 Mallard, 42 Lapwings, four Snipe, two Green Sandpipers, six Black-headed Gulls, and a Wigeon.

At Stapenhill Wood I spent a pleasant half-hour getting great views of Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps, and tits before heading for home.

Chiffchaff

Long-tailed Tit

Tuesday September 3

After sacrificing the morning in favour of moths, I decided I would get down to the patch this afternoon.

Suffice to say it proved to be a rubbish plan. Heavy cloud put paid to any thoughts of getting my camera out, as did the total absence of any noteworthy birds. I am currently awaiting a replacement tripod, my current one having fallen apart spectacularly two visits ago, and today I found that almost all of the Teal, around 32 birds, were on the furthest flash for which I would have required a tripod.

The nearest flash contained four Green Sandpipers, nine Snipe, and eight Lapwings. The nearest thing to a highlight was an accumulated total of 12 Chiffchaffs, which isn't bad for an afternoon visit.

Its the West Midlands Alldayer on Saturday, so I hope things pick up.

Garden moth trap

Although I trapped 96 moths last night, only one was new for the year, and it was also a garden tick. The very large Old Lady was fluttering in the bottom of the trap dementedly when I first looked in, although it soon calmed down.

Old Lady

On release next to a fermenting apple, it ignored the gift and flew behind the shed to roost.

The best of the rest were two Garden Carpets, a Light Emerald (second of the year), and a Broad-bodied Yellow Underwing (third of the year).

Commonest by far was 51 Large Yellow Underwings, followed by 12 Square-spot Rustics, and nine Lesser Yellow Underwings.

Sunday September 1

Sunny with a very light westerly breeze. I was up early because I thought the ringers would be there again. Ironically, when I arrived I couldn't see their cars so spent an hour searching the hedgerows around Netherstead for migrants, seeing two Blackcaps, two Whitethroats, two Lesser Whitethroats and several Chiffchaffs before I discovered they actually were here (but further up the track than the usual place).

It transpired they had caught about 70 birds, but they all sounded like common ones so I took Tony (the leader of the group) to a place which I thought might prove more productive in a future visit.

He went back to the nets while I continued along the hedge bordering the former pool, and promptly bumped into a large flock of finches feeding on grain bordering a recently created stubble field. There were about 100 Goldfinches, ten Greenfinches, two Yellowhammers, a dozen Reed Buntings and a few Linnets. But then I did a double-take as a bunting perched up next to a Greenfinch. Surely it was a Corn Bunting. It disappeared into the crop while I pondered whether I could believe my eyes.

After ten minutes of no further signs I decided to edge forward. This had the desired effect as it flew out and I was able to confirm that the outer-tail feathers were brown. It landed on the top of the standing crops further up the field and I got a couple of record shots.

Corn Bunting

Corn Bunting (blurred but zoomed in)

I think this is the fifth record for the site (I've seen four), and the second for this time of the year.

Shortly afterwards I located a single Whinchat in the hedge. Other species worth a comment were a single Grey Wagtail heard at Netherstead, and the first Meadow Pipit of the autumn heard calling high over the chat field.

Whinchat

I moved on to the flash field, but only counted 28 Lapwings, four Snipe, a Green Sandpiper, 34 Teal, a Wigeon, 65 Mallard, 195 Greylag Geese, and a Kingfisher.

On the return journey I had a brief view of a juvenile Peregrine.

A pretty good visit.

PS Tony K has kindly sent me the final ringing figures: A total of 103 birds ringed, only nine of which were re-traps.
49 Blue Tits
13 Great Tits
4 Long-tailed Tits
1 Reed Warbler
1 Whitethroat
14 Blackcaps
4 Chiffchaffs
4 Wrens
1 Blackbird
4 Robins
2 Dunnocks
4 Goldfinches

The modus operandi used is to bait the traps with adjacent seed holders, while the habitat is basically hedgerow and copse. So it is not surprising that they catch a lot of Blue Tits. On the other hand it shows up how much I must underestimate the number of birds I see. I have never counted as many as 49 Blue Tits during a morning at Morton Bagot, and the ringers are just trapping in one small place.

The other impressive one is the Blackcap count. I have noticed similar disparities between Blackcaps seen and Blackcaps trapped at other sites. Clearly these skulking migrants are much commoner than casual observation might suggest.

Its all very interesting.