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