Sunday 21st September - Blackdown

I've made 2 visits to Blackdown this week firstly on Tuesday and again this morning. Mum's funeral was on Wednesday and my brother stayed with us until yesterday, when he returned to Zimbabwe - so a difficult week all round. The weather throughout the week continued the incredible warm dry spell, the day's starting with cloud and occasional thick mist clearing as the mornings progressed to hot sun in the 20'sC. Friday we had rain and this morning was a brisk North-East wind which showed the first signs of having a chill.

Tuesday 16th

On Tuesday it was very misty on arrival around 7am with much reduced visibility. The usual Marsh Tit was present near the car park and a Jay flew over and Chiffchaff were still calling. I walked down the slope at Boarden Door Bottom and heard a brief 'chack' and looked up the hill to a Whitebeam where a Ring Ouzel was in the tree - it was a fair distance away and still misty, but it stayed feasting on the berries. Without a great view I decided try the top path but you couldn't really see the Whitebeam from there on my only other view was of the bird flying along the valley - but this is right on queue for the first wave of Ouzels migrating. The mist cleared a little and several Meadow Pipit were flying North,  I counted 95 House martin and 35 Swallows moving through and singles of Grey Wagtail, Buzzard, Kestrel and Sparrowhawk plus 2 Raven were the other species. Left as the dog brigade started to arrive.

Sunday 16th

An early visit again at 7am , the wind was quite brisk and from the North East, it was cloudy but at least clear, but with enough bite to wear a fleece. Along the same top path a 'chack and a call alerted me to what was almost definitely a Ring Ouzel which was flying behind a pine, it was then joined by 2 other birds but they were completely silhouetted and seem to head back towards the car park but I lost them to view behind trees- a bit frustrating. I carried on seeing at least 5 Stonechat and with a pair of these a Dartford Warbler. I met Graham Mitchell and as soon as we started chatting 3 thrushes took off from a nearby pine, a much better view - they were the 3 Ring Ouzels, we saw them fly to the same area I'd seen them earlier - but despite further searching they remained elusive. I counted 29 Meadow Pipits, 4 Jays, 5 Mistle Thrushes and in total 7 Stonechat with just a single Kestrel - no hirundines here were noticeable given the large movements again during the week.

Back at home at least 8 Common Buzzards were catching early thermals with a single Sparrowhawk and a Linnet flew over (uncommon here) and even rarer 5 Black-headed Gulls, with a smaller number of Meadow Pipits than on Blackdown. Several House Martin and a few Swallow remained hawking over the trees but nothing like the numbers earlier in the week when a Hobby was still in attendance

Tuesday's Ring Ouzel in the mist

Signs of Autumn

Log Art

View SW today with a bit of cloud cover

Friday 12 Sept - Summer or Autumn ?

It still feels like Summer !!! We've been back nearly 2 weeks from our trip and the weather here has been fantastic -  cool mornings, slightly misty, warm and sunny days and not much wind.

It's been a difficult couple of weeks as my Mum passed away at the end of last week - she'd had a long and fulfilled life and it was great that we managed to get back and see her in time, with that and getting the girls back into school routine everything else has been a little slow and I've only just turned my attention to finishing the Australia blog.

Most of my birding since I've been back has been from the back garden. which at the end of last week was pretty good with large flocks of Swallows and House Martins - sometimes in their 00's hawking over the trees on at least 3 occasions there were 2 Hobbys in attendance, although by Wednesday this week they all seemed to have vanished. Other raptors were just singles of  Buzzard, Sparrowhawk, Kestrel. Meadow Pipits have started to move and a few small groups were seen flying over the house (mainly last Friday) along with the odd Grey Wagtail and small numbers of Pied Wagtail. Whilst the bushes around the garden have been fairly quiet the occasional flock moves through with Long-tailed Tits, Marsh Tit, Coal Tit, Great Tit, Blue Tit and a Chiffchaff whilst only 2 Blackcap sightings indicate they have largely moved on. A young Green Woodpecker is often present with Great spotted Woodpecker staying in the trees not visiting the feeders yet, and the same behaviour displayed by pair of Nutchatches . Last week there were 2 Firecrests  that were occasionally glimpsed along with a Goldcrest..

6th September

An early morning walk at Blackdown  was pretty quiet 2 Redstarts being the best, with 3 resident Stonechats, It appears that the Rowan berry crop is hopeless this year, at least in this part of the world, but the Whitebeams and Hawthorns are berry-laden - which is the opposite of last year.

11th September

My first proper birding venture out was yesterday to Pagham, deciding to walk from the Siddlesham car park out to Church Norton and back. I'd seen the reports of the previous couple of weeks with an abundance of migrants, but with a few days of clear nights my expectations were lower as most were very likely to have headed South. At the Siddlesham end of the harbour a few skulking Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs a couple of Whitethroat and a Cettis Warbler indicated that most migrants had moved on. Waders were more interesting in the harbour with a Curlew Sandpiper and Whimbrel at the West end,  and on the Ferry Pool 6 Green Sandpipers, 3 Avocet and  5 Black tailed Godwit
The walk up to Church Norton was fairly quiet with 3 Whinchat in the scrubby field being the best. On the rising tide at the Church Norton end to the harbour, Greenshank, Grey Plover, Knot, Dunlin, Turnstone, Ringed Plover, Curlew and Black tailed Godwits were worthy of some time scanning through,  then to my surprise a small falcon that was flying towards me and looked to dark for a Kestrel turned out to be a Merlin. It whizzed behind the trees but then carried on low over the saltmarsh towards Pagham spit, always pleasing to see a Merlin.  Otherwise just a couple more Whitethroats with plenty of , Swallows, House Martins, and 2 Sand Martin concluded a pleasant morning.

Whimbrel

young Green Woodpecker

Little Egret

12th September

I went to Blackdown again first thing this morning, it was slightly misty which held better potential for migrants and I came across a large flock of passerines with probably over 50 Chiffchaffs, with the best being 6 Spotted Flycatchers. I spent quite a while with this flock as it moved around, and added Willow Warbler, Firecrest, Whitethroat and 3 Tree Pipits. Up to 6 Stonechats were seen along with resident Woodpeckers, Treecreeper, Marsh Tit and Goldcrests. 6 Jays together I assumed were part of the recent influx and a single Kestrel was the only raptor.

Spotted Flycatcher



Tree Pipit

Stonechat