Tuesday 25 October 2011

Another dire day on the Hills



TUESDAY 25 OCTOBER

The wind switched from SSE to SSW overnight and was accompanied by heavy rain. Such conditions are normally excellent for depositing birds on the hills so I made my way up Ivinghoe Beacon but was very disappointed.....

IVINGHOE HILLS NATURE RESERVE (BUCKS)

Walked the entire circuit with poor results - starting at 0930 hours and finishing at 1400 hours. In fact dire - apart from thrushes, nothing moving. Frustratingly, no luck with the 3= Ring Ouzels seen on North Slope early morning (Warren Claydon had another at Lodge Hill)......

The undoubted highlight was a pair of COMMON RAVENS - remaining present for over an hour. They initially appeared over Incombe Hole, before playing in the air and tumbling over Steps Hill, then moving to the Beacon and later favouring the eastern slopes. Both birds were adult and one of our local breeding pairs.

Second to that, a single BRAMBLING flew over calling, just 8 Chaffinches in total, 25 Redwings and 44 Fieldfare (Lucy Flower obtaining a nice photograph of the latter - see above) - mostly in Top Scrub

Most interesting was the RED ADMIRAL migration - 7 noted in obvious migration over the Beacon

A pair of Rooks had an interesting altercation with a hunting juvenile Common Kestrel - observing from a distance and then homing in whenever anything was captured and making it drop the catch.

At Wilstone Reservoir, the winter-plumaged WATER PIPIT was still present on the left side of the bund - and the two Whoopers

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