Sunday 7th October - Autumn

In the last two weeks I have made 2 visits to Blackdown. Last weekend on Sunday, an early walk, surprisingly with Hannah who decided for once to rise early and come with me. It was fairly cold, cloudy and with slight wind. The first bird was a Ring Ouzel in the top of a Whitebeam on the ridge which sat still long enough for a scope view before it headed off calling. 2 Woodlark, a Firecrest 5 Meadow Pipit and a couple of Stonechat were the best of others.

Saturday 6th, ended up a bit of a wash out. I had thoughts of going for an early morning walk but it was foggy until around 10am when the rain started. Instead I  drove to Burgess Hill to pick up my camera lens which had been fixed by the people at Nikon, so I now feel back in the flow. The rain was heavy and windy all day and resulted in the first significant leaf-fall, so it was a day of indoor domestic tasks.

Sunday 7th, I was back on Blackdown early, although Dave B had beaten me to it. There was little moving to as I caught I with him on the main path, just a calling Dartford Warbler and Goldcrest. As we stood there a commotion by the local Carrion Crows alerted us to a raptor flying for the Northern end , a Goshawk which was nice, we presumed it was probably leaving its roost. Dave was leading an SOS walk on Blackdown at 9, so it would be helpful if we could check out the site beforehand. We had a couple of Redwing in Bordon Door Bottom, and heard Crossbill and a calling Ring Ouzel somewhere on the ridge. Retreating steps we couldn't find any Ouzels and other than a few Meadow Pipits and a flyover Pied Wagtail, the site was quiet. Dave left to find his group in the car park and I continued to the Southern end. Despite being a bit breezy, the weather was bright and the views were spectacular towards the South Downs. A Mistle Thrush flew over and Crotchet Farm callye had a few Bullfinch and calling Chiffchaff, back on the main path a few Stonechat and Dartford Warbler were fairly active and seemingly as always together and then two thrushes flew over me and high and SW over the ridge, they were Ring Ouzels but were not calling. Another 15 minutes later I heard the call of a Ring Ouzel somewhere above me and a bird dropped out of the sky and into the top of pine near the path. It stayed virtually hidden in the tree and a few glimpses were all I could manage. A had one further brief sighting of another bird near the Reservoir track, so 4 for the morning, I let Dave know who had just started his walk and I believe he had glimpses later.  So not a bad morning.

Stonechat

One small bush- Stonechat and 2 Dartford Warblers

Dartford Warbler

Dartford Warbler

Kestrel

Ring Ouzel - remained in hiding

Fly Agaric

Views this morning were great.