WonderfulWildlifeUK

Wildlife recorded in Cholsey Parish 2019.   115 Bird species: An average year with a few surprises. The first Great Egret seen by Richard Broughton flying south over Church road on 8th August was an expected addition to the Cholsey list. The next surprise was a White-tailed Eagle seen flying over Cholsey Church on the 15th September and the subsequently over the Millennium field football pitch and seen by many who were watching a match at the time. A few days later 15 White Stork were seen flying north over the River Thames by Gerry Sexton. The 2 latter species were all from release schemes in the south of England and represent wandering birds. 15 Mammal species: Another average showing. Surely there must be a few more Mammal species around Cholsey? 4 Reptile & Amphibian Species: Cholsey seems poor for the above with only 4 species recorded and no sightings of Newts this year! 17 Dragonfly Species: A good year for Dragonflies but nothing unexpected. 30 Butte

Sunny, 10°, light SSW. A productive walk out to Lollingdon and back today. A Merlin (male) flew east towards Moulsford scattering a Thrush flock in the process. c200 Fieldfare and several Redwing , a couple of Mistle Thrush and 50 odd Starling present on Lollingdon Hill and a few mobile flocks elsewhere. 23 Pied Wagtail and several Meadow Pipit feeding in a field on the lower slopes of the hill. A small flock of approx. c20 Golden Plover seen flying out towards Aston Tirrold along with a couple of Lapwing . 2 Goldcrest feeding with a Tit flock on the north side of the hill. A Raven seen and heard flying towards Cholsey Hill and a Little Egret seen to drop down into Cholsey brook near Little Lollingdon. And 2+ Brambling with a small Chaffinch flock associating with Fieldfare . Would have likely missed them if I had not heard one call! A flock of around 20 Long-tailed Tit roaming the church area and Nuthatch , Treecreeper and Coal Tit among the garden visi

Sightings today from Alan: Cormorant, Bullfinch, Water Rail, Cetti's Warbler, Mistle Thrush etc Mistle Thrush  Bullfinch (male)  Bullfinch (female) Cormorant from Cholsey Wildlife https://cholseywildlife.blogspot.com/2019/12/thames-green-lane.html

Sunny spells, 8°, light S. The flooding out along the Bunk line/Green lane area has receded quite a bit and reflects the lack of birds now out in the fields. The only Gull seen was an adult Herring Gull near CSW. A few flocks of Fieldfare and Redwing around but little else of note. Lesser Blackback Gull (courtesy Alan Dawson) from Cholsey Wildlife https://cholseywildlife.blogspot.com/2019/12/all-quiet.html

Overcast, 10°, light SSE. Alan has managed to add 2 more species to the Cholsey bird list for this year with 6 Shelduck flyover and 2 Wigeon on a flooded field near Green Lane. Also 200+ Lapwing over, probably the same flock that has been seen over Cholsey Hill and on the floods between Cholsey and the Moreton’s. Thanks to Alan Dawson for the photos. Shelduck Wigeon  Lapwing from Cholsey Wildlife https://cholseywildlife.blogspot.com/2019/12/ducks-plovers.html

Sunshine and a clear sky, 6°, no wind! A nice late afternoon walk out to the Lees. Again not a lot going on, however a Peregrine Falcon sitting on one of the pylons out towards Aston Tirrold. A flock of 40 Skylark feeding in one of the fields and around 400 Gulls distantly on the flooded area.  Great-spotted Woodpecker (courtesy Alan Dawson) from Cholsey Wildlife https://cholseywildlife.blogspot.com/2019/12/xmas-day-walk.html

Have a great Christmas everyone. From Cholsey Wildlife from Cholsey Wildlife https://cholseywildlife.blogspot.com/2019/12/merry-christmas.html

Just driving back from Wallingford when I noticed a Wader on the floods along Hithercroft. A quick stop (fortunately I carry a pair of binoculars in the car) and identified it as a Ruff , a rare bird in Cholsey, the last record being Jan 2013. There are quite extensive floods between Cholsey, Brightwell and the Moretons and there were a lot of Gulls present. The last time it flooded like this there were several species of Wader present so worth looking out for. A Stonechat found by Michael Pocock at Cholsey Meadows today. I did not get a photo of the Ruff so I have uploaded an image courtesy of the BTO (Tom Wallis). from Cholsey Wildlife https://cholseywildlife.blogspot.com/2019/12/ruff-stonechat.html

I will be having a very exciting end to 2019 and an equally incredible start to 2020. In just a few days, I will be travelling to Equador, as a guest of the Quito Tourist Board and of Ana Lucia, of El Septimo Paraiso Lodge, in the Mindo region of Equador. I met Ana Lucia at BirdFair this year. She was very interested in the Bushnells and the work I do with a variety of wildlife camera set ups. We talked for a long time and she told me about her wonderful lodge in the Cloud Forest in Equador. As you can imagine, I was very interested, especially as this region  of Cloud forest has unique ecosystems, renowned for their biological abundance. Located less than 2 hours north of Quito, the cloud forests of Mindo and Bellavista regions are renown for their biodiversity. Over 400 species of birds have been recorded here, and experts believe the actual count is much higher! To cut a long story short, Ana took me to meet the team on the Quito (Capital of Equador) stand at Bird Fair and we had

Sunny spells, 10°, light WSW. No rain today but the ground is very sodden with some parts of footpaths under water out towards Lollingdon! Somewhat quiet still but Thrushes abundant with Fieldfare and Redwing flocks roaming and a good number of Starling mixed in. 5 Kestrel  noted "en route" and a Sparrowhawk over Lollingdon Hill. 3 Mistle Thrush in the garden late afternoon. Wren Kestrel from Cholsey Wildlife https://cholseywildlife.blogspot.com/2019/12/much-of-same.html

This year’s tawny box at Yew View has been a real challenge this year! We had great success in this box early this year and I was keen to get it even better for next year’s nesting season. I have installed new camera angles and spent a lot of time very high up the tree fiddling with cabling, camera angles and settings! Just as I thought I had finally got it all sorted, the squirrels moved in. Normally, I clear their leaves out as soon as they collect them and then they leave ands one of the other boxes on site. This year, they have been very persistent and we must have cleared the box ten times! I have tried ground coffee in the box as the smell is meant to deter them. This worked for a few Das, then they were back in! The tawnies start re-establishing themselves with the nest box late in the year, ready for breeding season. It is important that they can get in the box and are not scared off or choose somewhere else.  They will visit several times  in the week and often stash food i

A couple of pics by Alan from along the Bunk line today. Lesser Blackback Gull Meadow Pipit from Cholsey Wildlife https://cholseywildlife.blogspot.com/2019/12/bunk-line.html

As a naturalist, plants have always been my Achilles heel; diverse to a fault and forever conspiring to flummox. Whereas I was brought up identifying and observing birds, and have learnt to [somewhat] accurately tell apart various other fauna, for me, plants have always proven tricky. Why? I am not sure, but perhaps this is […] from James Common https://commonbynature.co.uk/2019/12/21/challenging-myself-for-2020-365-days-of-plants/

The bright sunshine urged me out of doors this Sunday morning, and I pulled on boots and a raincoat in readiness for a walk. Long-standing readers of this blog may recall I previously wrote about experiencing nature in the city. Living in the midst of a built-up area, surrounded by blocks of flats and busy […] from James Common https://commonbynature.co.uk/2019/12/21/winter-walks-in-the-vineyard-by-frances-jones/

A very happy Christmas to you all, and best wishes for this holiday season and the new year. No snow this Christmas for us, but rain... lots and lots of rain! I've never known it so flooded here, but the animals are safe and we are coping. Don't forget we are open for ten days from the 27th of December, so if you need an excuse to walk of your Christmas dinner, escape the family for an afternoon, or just want to come and see if you can spot our new otter cubs have their swimming lessons, then please do come and see us and say hello. from British Wildlife Centre ~ Keeper's Blog http://britishwildlifecentre.blogspot.com/2019/12/merry-christmas.html

Rain & more rain, 8°, breezy SW. A brief respite from the rain around midday so decided to chance a walk along the Bunk line. Still got caught in a few showers though. Lots of Corvids feeding out in the flooded fields, including a flock of 21 Magpie but only a single Gull present.  Around 20 Mallard/Hybrids on the floods but keeping close to the brook. Good numbers of Redwing , Fieldfare and Starling scattered all over and a single Yellowhammer noted. A Grey Wagtail and several Pied Wagtail and Meadow Pipit dotted about.  2nd year Herring Gull ? Redwing from Cholsey Wildlife https://cholseywildlife.blogspot.com/2019/12/still-raining_20.html

Cloudy then heavy rain, 11°, moderate SSE. A grey and soggy day today. Fortunately got out before most of the rain came and bumped into Alan who was also out birding this morning. Not a lot see though. Alan had a Peregrine Falcon fly over out at Little Lollingdon and I saw a female Sparrowhawk over Lollingdon Hill. Several mobile flocks of Fieldfare and Redwing but little else to report. Grey Partridge (courtesy Alan Dawson) from Cholsey Wildlife https://cholseywildlife.blogspot.com/2019/12/still-raining.html

Rain, 6°, light SW. A bit of a wash out today with almost constant light to moderate rain. And not a lot going on along the Bunk line. A Grey Heron out in the fields with 20+ Black-headed Gull and a Bullfinch , Grey Wagtail and a couple of Pied Wagtail . A thin scattering of Redwing and Fieldfare and a flock of c50 Starling around. 5 Roe Deer seen. No local photos today so I decided to post a pic of a Cook's Petrel I took   off Kaikoura, New Zealand. A contrast to what you would see around Cholsey. from Cholsey Wildlife https://cholseywildlife.blogspot.com/2019/12/a-wet-one.html

The Black-headed Gull photographed by Alan Dawson at Benson Lock in November and December was ringed as a chick in the Oslo area of Norway in 2011. It appears to spend the summer months in the Oslo area (presumably breeding) and is not recorded in Norway during the winter months. The first record outside of the breeding season was in March this year at Little Marlow in Buckinghamshire. Then seen again in Oslo in April. It has returned to the UK and is now wintering in the Benson area. Thank you to Håvard Husebø from Stavanger museum for the information. And to Alan Dawson for the photo. from Cholsey Wildlife https://cholseywildlife.blogspot.com/2019/12/norwegian-gull-in-benson.html

Cloudy with the odd sunny bits, 8°, light ESE. Another quiet day out at Lollingdon. A Chiffchaff present on the north side of the hill and 2 Reed Bunting and several Yellowhammer with the Chaffinch/Linnet flock. A Buzzard seen chasing a Sparrowhawk flying directly towards me and as they became aware of me in their path the Sparrowhawk broke right and the Buzzard left and both disappeared off over adjacent fields. A male Blackcap visiting a garden at Lollingdon regularly. Per Dave M. Sparrowhawk in the garden again but didn’t catch anything. A Weasel seen and it looked as though it was chasing a Grey Squirrel . Several Roe Deer also seen.  Song Thrush doing its best to avoid the camera. Sparrowhawk wondering where all the birds have gone. The track I was heading up when the Buzzard and Sparrowhawk came hurtling towards me. The Sparrowhawk went thru the gap on the right and the Buzzard left. from Cholsey Wildlife https://cholseywildlife.blogspot.com/2019/12

Cholsey Marsh today. 2 Egyptian Geese , a Barn Owl , a flock of 12 Long-tailed Tit , a Treecreeper , a Water Rail heard calling, 5 Greenfinch , several Linnet and 4-5 Common Snipe . Photos of Barn Owl & Egyptian Geese courtesy Alan Dawson. from Cholsey Wildlife https://cholseywildlife.blogspot.com/2019/12/cholsey-marsh.html

Sunny spells, 8°, breezy WSW. Not a lot going on today! 2 Bullfinch in the Millennium Wood and a Raven east over Lollingdon Hill and 2 Little Egret distantly in flooded fields between Lollingdon and Aston Tirrold. The Robin pictured below was seen early last week and had its tail missing. Have seen it every time I have walked past the hedge where it resides and it does not seem to be adversely affected by the lack of a tail. Hopefully will grow back soon. Forgot to mention on Wednesday. A Little Owl out at Lollingdon, flushed by 2 horse riders eventually relocated by TW in a nearby garden. from Cholsey Wildlife https://cholseywildlife.blogspot.com/2019/12/a-robins-tail.html

It’s shaping up to be a good year for Bohemian Waxwings (Bombycilla garrulus). Sure, the much anticipated ‘waxwing winter’ – an irregular spectacle marked by the mass arrival of these colourful birds to our shores – never quite came fruition, but there are still a good number around. Hundreds, as opposed to thousands, yet more […] from James Common https://commonbynature.co.uk/2019/12/12/winter-wildlife-doesnt-come-much-better-than-this/

Bright at first then clouding up, 6°, light SW. A bit of a Raptor theme today during a walk out to Lollingdon and back. 26 Red Kite , 14 Buzzard , 3 Sparrowhawk , 4 Kestrel , 3 Peregrine Falcon and a single Merlin . The Peregrines flew west over Cholsey Church, a large female and a much smaller male and what looked to be a young bird and a male Merlin that zipped thru out at Lollingdon. Other than that there were reasonable numbers of Thrushes around as usual, 4  Great-spotted Woodpecker and 3 Green Woodpecker . Muntjac Deer , Roe Deer and Brown Hare also seen. The usual suspects in the garden again today plus Treecreeper , Nuthatch and Coal Tit . TW has both male and female Blackcap visiting his garden.  2 of the 3 Peregrines ↕  Green Woodpecker soaking up some sun. Long-tailed Tit (1 of around 20 in the Church yard) Treecreeper in the garden (courtesy Loren) from Cholsey Wildlife https://cholseywildlife.blogspot.com/2019/12/raptors.html