Thursday 19th September - Brown jobs

 English names ascribed to birds, I believe, are often to sensationalise an otherwise rather dowdy looking individual, the Dunnock excepted as a brown bird and uninspiring name. The Eastern Olivaceous Warbler is a fairly exotic name for a bird resembling a slightly washed out version of a Reed Warbler, itself a  small warm brown warbler, although the former with a longer bill, an evocative manner of tail-wagging and an exceptional rarity status will win any prize.

I'd not seen one before in the UK and they are pretty rare with only 20 previous records the majority being offshore islands, so it was a surprise for one to turn up at Farlington Marshes on the Hampshire coast found on Saturday afternoon, and perhaps more surprising that it obliged to hang around until at least today given the clear overnight skies and its preference for Mediterranean olive groves rather than south coast bramble patches. My inability to try and see it before today had me assuming that it would be missed, nonetheless I went to Farlington first thing and with other birders present the Eastern Olivaceous Warbler was showing within 45 minutes of getting there, often hidden in the large thorn and bramble clumps it would appear out in full sun with it's tail-pumping action on full display.

The berry-laden bushes contained a large number of Blackcaps, with a few Whitethroat and Lesser Whitethroat,  and there was a bit of passage with a stream of Swallows and Hose Martins, many Meadow Pipits, Pied Wagtails and Grey Wagtail.

The Bearded Tit population appeared healthy and potentially signs of a successful breeding season. I saw one party of 9 birds and two other groups of 3 and 4 birds. The only waders on lagoon were Redshank, Black-tailed Godwit and a handful of Dunlin and on the Saltmarsh a Greenshank plus a Curlew Sandpiper.

I moved counties back to Sussex and to Church Norton. Despite the bright blue skies, a strengthening wind kept any activity low and it was very quiet in the bushes surrounding the harbour with just a single Whitethroat and Lesser Whitethroat giving brief views, although I did see a Clouded Yellow butterfly, my first of the year. I waited for tide to come into the harbour watching the activities of the common waders, although not in large numbers, it was nice to see the Knot, Dunlin, Grey Plover, Bar-tailed Godwit, Ringed Plover and Turnstone. A couple of Golden Plover a single Avocet and a Whimbrel gave some variety and a swoop by a Sparrowhawk and then a Peregrine scattered the flocks before they returned to feed.

Eastern Olivaceous Warbler

Curlew Sandpiper

Curlew Sandpiper

Whimbrel

Wednesday 11th September - Rewilding

Rewilding is perhaps an overused but very current buzzword, with many aspiring environmentally-minded individuals appearing to jump on the bandwagon with good intentions. Returning land to it's original wild state with the hope that the original wildlife also returns probably best describes it's aim.

I recently read the very good book 'Wilding', by Isabella Tree, describing what had been done on the Knepp estate, which I enjoyed and was fascinating. It also made complete sense how the simple bio-science was explained (although I''m not sure how their recent White Stork breeding program fits into the concept and it wasn't covered in the book).

The idea of introducing more nature always appeals. So can I envisage any element of 'Wilding' here at home ?, well not really to be honest, however, I am keen to get as much wildlife as possible into the property and I'm sure Hannah and Adie already have a head start as they appear to have been rewilding their bedrooms for several months now, although the sort of wildlife that inhabits teenagers bedrooms is not the sort I'm aiming to attract.
The pond introduction proved one thing, that if you improve an area however small the wildlife will turn up on its own, and the amount of success with amphibians, damselflies and dragonflies are the notable visual signs that this worked. If I embark on a more serious attempt with a focused project to introduce or encourage more wildlife, it has to be a bit at a time.

The plot overall is 5 acres,  not tiny, but limited to what animals can be used for browsing and therefore what can be sensibly achieved on this scale. Currently the garden at the front of the house is being slightly reworked with one half new flower beds and the other with strips of the grass left and introduce some wildflowers... and then the fields.

Until now we got the fields cut a couple of times a year and the hedges cut once a year. This was largely without any purpose other than keeping things neat, with no real regard to timing or looking at the effects of any wildlife. We toyed with the idea of letting a local farmer graze his sheep over the fields and he reckoned that introducing 20-30 sheep alongside our 2 useless beasts would be suitable for the size of the fields... I was not so sure and could see this going horribly wrong so turned down the offer..

Instead, this summer I  decided to look more closely at the insect life in the fields and to see which wild flowers appeared naturally, mowing only a couple of paths. In June and July there was a big increase in Butterfly numbers, in what was a good year generally, I've recorded 19 species this year. The moth night I had at the end of June was also enlightening to an incredible number of species. Grasshoppers & Crickets have been abundant and my baseline of mammals are Fox, Badger, Roe Deer, Bunny Rabbit and too many Grey Squirrels, as regard the small rodent species I have no idea and would like to find out, but the Tawny Owls have done well this year and small mammals must form part of their diet. .. I will focus next year on trying the wildflower approach to Field 2 and 3 listed below, the ones that the sheep don't use. So currently I would divide the property into the following areas.

Area 1 - house and garden including barns and chicken pen -about 1 acre
Field 1 - closest to house and used by the 2 sheep - about 1 acre
Field 2 - with the Alder Copse - about 2/3 acre
Field 3 - largest field but heavily sloped - about 1 acre
Field 4 - small with Stables - about 1/3 acre
Area 2 - woodland edge to run-off stream - about 1 acre

I found the followng flowers in fields 2 and 3 over the Summer

Relatively abundant

Meadow Vetch or Birdsfoot Trefoil 
Knapweed 
Hoary Plantain
Yarrow
Buttercup

Red Clover

One or 2 plants
Tufted Vetch
Marsh Woundwort
Figwort
Mallow

and too much of what you don't want such as creeping thistle and dock,

SO a vague plan has hatched to see whether I can slowly encourage more of the nectar-bearing varieties, without a wholescale burning and replanting.

I have recorded 95 species of bird in the 8 years we have been here (which includes flyovers), 19 Butterfly Species, currently about 80 moth species , but that was just from 1 night. Mammals it is under 10 species of the larger mammals, as well as Fox , Badger and Roe Deer, I have had 1 sighting of Weasel and occasional sightins of Muntjac Deer but I have not focussed on rodents and have never seen a Hedgehog here. I have had both Pipistrelle and Noctule bat.. so I consider this the baseline from which to measure any changes.

It is obvious that the whole place needs more management than just letting things grow wild and it is really too small to consider introducing roaming buffalo herds, so I will look to do small bits, so clearing some leaving... and see where we end up.

Field 2 

Field 3

Field 2 again

Marsh Woundwort

Roesel's Bush Cricket

Tuesday 10th September - Garden bonus

A week that seems to be filled with Doctors, Dentists and other appointments for the whole family means a scattered approach to looking out for birds, an autumnal change in the weather has been more apparent in the last few days and this morning a fog was around for a couple of hours before the sun eventually broke through. At least 3 Tawny Owls were particularly vocal last night close to the house and there was a quite a lot of bird activity in the garden this morning. There is a large ramshackle group of shrubs by the chicken pen which is known as Pheasant Berry or Himalayan Honeysuckle (Leycesteria Formosa). The red pendulous flowers have red berries which eventually turn black and seemed to be adored by the birds. There were up to 4 Blackcaps there this morning and to my surprise joined by a Garden Warbler, which is a garden tick, an unusual event, it later moved to an elderberry, where the last of the berries are going quickly. There were also at least 3 Chiffchaffs a Firecrest was seen with a Treecreeper and up to 35 Goldfinches a further surprise when a Turtle Dove landed on the Chicken pen briefly before taking flight and powering south, I had been scattering some seed in that area but hadn't been out there yet this morning, its quite late for a Turtle Dove around here so it may have been just passing through on its way to Africa.

Garden Warbler at home

Tucking into Elderberries

Blackcap

Himalayan Honeysuckle

Aka Pheasant Berry

...or Leycesteria Formosa

Friday 6th September - Blustery Portland

I spent a couple of days down at Portland Bill staying at the Lighthouse Bird Observatory. The weather dictates the quality of the birds at this time of year and the direction and strength of the winds is the biggest factor. A strong WNW wind is the worst which means passerines will be hard to come by and seabirds will not be sufficiently close to shore. The opposite would be a light South Easterly, which would probably mean high numbers of migrant birds with a good deal of visible migration and the potential for rarities. Unfortunately the former conditions prevailed and Wednesday was a blustery and occasionally wet day, followed by a slight shift to a NNW on Thursday.

I called in at Blashford Lakes and also Lodsmoor in Weymouth on my route to Portland, where the only notable sightings were 5 Great Egrets and a large flock of c400 Sand Martins with a brief flash of a Kingfisher and 2 Green Sandpipers, 4 Common Sandpiper. 

After traipsing around the Bill area for the whole of Wednesday, when it was difficult to find a bird in the strong winds, the sum total was 2 Wheatears , a pair of Little Owl and a handful of Swallows, rumours of a flushed Corncrake enlivened events but too long spent with others padding up and down stubble fields did little more than disturb some newly fledged scruffy almost tail-less Pheasants,...mm.

Thursday did turn out to be a whole lot better. The winds lightened and some early visible passage included a movement of Meadow Pipits into 3 figures, 8 Grey Wagtails, 17 Yellow Wagtails, 9 Pied Watgails, and 6 Tree Pipits. The sea had some early activity with 4 Arctic Skua, 3 Great Skua and 10 Manx Shearwater. and the best bird of the day was a Wryneck that showed briefly in the Quarry before melting into the brambles not to reappear for the afternoon. Other birds included a Spotted Flycatcher, Sedge Warbler, Whitethroat and over 30 Wheatear.

Always a worthwhile trip, although needing to book in advance to stay does mean a lottery with the weather.

Little Owl

Little Owl

Wryneck

Wryneck

Hummingbird Hawkmoth

Hummingbird Hawkmoth

Willow Warbler

Wheatear

Sunday 1st September - 8 months down

Can't believe its September already. !!

Another early morning Blackdown walk this morning.

A drop in temperature was noticeable first thing this morning on Blackdown and there was a reduction in the numbers of birds of recent days. Early on, 2 Wheatears showed on the Reservoir Track and 2 Tree Pipits took flight heading south calling along with a Grey Wagtail heading in the same direction. The first flock of birds took a while to be encountered but held 12 or more Spotted Flycatchers, 2 Redstart, c20 Chiffchaff, 8 Willow Warbler, 3 Whitethroat and 1 Blackcap. The local Stonechats and Dartford Warblers were still active and plenty of sightings of Great Spotted Woodpecker, Green Woodpecker, Nuthatch and Treecreeper in with the flocks of Tits kept thing s interesting, but nothing appeared to set the pulse racing.

Redstart (f)

Bullfinch

Spotted Flycatcher

Spotted Flycatcher

Wheatear