Sunday 13 November - Leaf collecting

Saturday was Wet, very cold and windy - I did a 6km Commando assault course at Hever Castle in Kent with Adie, a school friend and her Dad - It was freezing and very wet but ultimately good fun as I survived !

Sunday I was mainly recovering, the weather improved and I spent a fair amount of time outside. Apart from more continuing leaf fall, it was very similar to last weekend. A small handful of Redwing and Fieldfare flew over, with a couple of Song Thrush and 2 Mistle Thrush. Both Grey and Pied Wagtails visited the pond. A Siskin flock still numbered around 30 birds and kept to the Alders, 4 Lesser Redpoll were seen as were 2 Bullfinch, Chaffinch, Goldfinch and Greenfinch. A Marsh Tit appeared at the feeder which was the first time for several weeks and just one Common Buzzard was visible. There are plenty of Woodpigeons, but numbers in the low hundreds so far, rather than thousand of previous years but everything this year is a little later.

Trees still have many leaves left

No Sheep !!

The pond collecting leaves

Grey Wagtail

Sunday 6 November - Leaf Fall

I had not been to the South coast for a few months, so without a better plan I decided on a morning visit to Selsey. There had been a small Auk movement during the week, but with the winds switching to a WNW direction the prospects were fairly slim of any unusual birds. It was still worth seeing the 3 Great Northern Diver on the sea with a Red throated Diver flying through a single Common Scoter, 3 Brent Geese and distant Kittiwake and Gannet. There were several Auks moving through but most at a distance became sp' only but with a handful of closer recognisable Razorbill and Guillemot. Passerine movement was limited with just 3 Skylark, 4 Meadow Pipit and 3 Pied Wagtails. So not much happening but a pleasant couple of hours and in the company of the locals who always provide decent humour.

At home on Sunday my task was autumn bulb planting - Tulips and Alliums of which I managed about 300. I'm used to the Sheep watching what I'm doing in the garden so it's odd that they're gone  - no they haven't been sold or sent to market, I've pimped the sheep , at least I'm paying for them to have sex !!! - So they're  away on holiday for a few weeks with a Ram - maybe next Spring there will be more Sheep !.

With the falling leaves I've been diligent in removing any from the surface of the new pond where I've refrained from just covering with a net, on the basis I don't wan any passing birds to suffer a fate of being trapped and I don't want the pond to get clogged in its first winter by dead leaf litter. However, maybe there is a looming problem as so far I removed 3 'barrow-loads of floating leaves this weekend  and currently the Beech trees have only lost 1/3 of their leaves and the Oaks are still holding on to theirs. So we will see. The more pleasing news is that both Pied and Grey Wagtails were visiting the pond on Sunday although they merely turned over a couple of leaves rather than do any more helpful clearing.

There was an unusual movement of Gulls early morning on Sunday (any gull sighting is quite unusual here) with 13 Black headed Gulls, 6 Common Gulls and 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls drifting past. In addition 10 Redwing and 4 Fieldfare were seen briefly stopping in the trees and 4 Mistle Thrush flew over. A quite substantial finch flock of mainly Siskin (I estimated c75 birds on Saturday) but saw only 1 Siskin on Sunday. The remaining list of birds were

Woodpigeon 100+
Stock Dove 5
Starling 30+
Nuthatch
Treecreeper
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Goldcrest 2
Goldfinch 5
Chaffinch 8
Greenfinch 1
Pheasant
Carrion Crow
Jackdaw
Jay 2
Magpie
Robin 3
Dunnock 3
Wren
Blackbird 6
Great Tit 2
Blue Tit 4
Coal Tit 2
Buzzard 3

Sunday 30th October - Foggy

Not much to report from a foggy couple of weekends. Last Saturday I went to Blackdown early and it was foggy, I thought it would gradually lift as the morning progressed but it didn't really clear at all, so a couple of hours were spent with limited visibility, I saw Dave B early on so we walked around together. There were a lot of birds in the copse at the first crosstracks. 100+ Redwing, 75+ Fieldfare and a very large flock 100+ of Lesser Redpolls. A fair bit of time was spent scanning through these birds but nothing unusual was with them. Other sightings included  25 Goldfinch, 2 Dartford Warbler, 1 Chiffchaff numerous Goldcrest and Treecreeper.

A Grey Wagtail has started frequenting the pond at home. I would normally be delighted to see a new bird for he garden list and today I did see a new bird but was not jumping for joy. A Ring-necked Parakeet was being chased by the local Starlings, not a bird I would particularly welcome establishing itself in the village. There was a fair bit of other movement first thing this morning. 4 Skylarks a Meadow Pipit, 50+ Redwing, 2 Mistle Thrush, Sparrowhawk. Siskin 30, Goldfinch 10 and 3 or 4 Goldcrest and a Firecrest still calling from deeper in the gully. No doubt the Woodpigeon invasion is imminent.

Dartford Warbler in the fog