22/12/12 rainy sightings

Garden sightings

                                                      one of the adult male blackbird

                                               1 starling infront of the other male blackbird

                                                                         Jackdaw

                                                          The female blackbird

                                                             2 collard doves

• 2 starlings
• 1 adult male blackbird and 1 adult female
• 1 dunnock
• 2 collard doves
• 4 house sparrows
• 3 jackdaws

Trees

• Small flocks of 5 green finches
• 15+ goldfinches
• 10+ blue tits
• 30+ starlings
• 30+ jackdaws
• 2 carrion crows
• 40+ house sparrows

Opposite house

• 40+ ferel pigeons

Other news

• 2 Mute swans flew over on Tuesday in the morning with collard doves, wood pigeons, starlings, magpies and lots of rooks and carrion crows. 

Garden sightings 15/12/12

White wagtails

White wagtails have been seen more often this Autumn and because of the frosts we've had the wagtails have came into the town and as a result only 2 pied wagtails which breed each year haven't been seen near the house. Although 15- 25 white wagtails arive in the Autumn  this is the first year i've seen them around. 

Trees

Redwing

                                            

                                                                              Male chaffinch

                                                                        Wood pigeon

                                           Male blackbird (left) with female (right)

• 8 blackbirds
• 30+ chaffinches
• 20+ gold finches
• 1 robin
• 40+ starlings
• 40+ jackdaws
• 3 magpies
• 2 carrion crows
• 10+ Redwings
• 30+ blue tits
• 10+ great tits
• 2 dunnocks
• 30+ house sparrows
• 3 collard doves
• 2 wood pigeons

Opposite house

                                           Black headed gull in winter plumage

• 1 pied wagtail or white wagtail
• 20+ jacdaws
• 3 black headed gulls
• 3 magpies
• 40+ starlings
• 20 feral pigeons

Flying over

• Lots of black headed and common gulls
• 20+ redwings
• 2 male blackbirds
• 12 gold finches
• 15 chaffinches
• 2 green finches
• 40+ starlings
• 2 magpies
• Feral pigeons
• 30+ wood pigeons
• Corvids

My Garden

                                                     White Wagtail

• 1 wood pigeon- On a lower roof resting before flying a metre up to the top of the roof.
• 1 WHITE WAGTAIL feeding on the lower roof before feeding on the top of the roof and next doors roof. 1st of the year for the roof and a first for the garden.

My 16/12/12 garden sightings. Highlights 2 warblers and lots of birds

There was some great birds today and a few unexpected ones which I didn't think I would see today. For example in my garden a Female Blackcap arrived today and I only saw it when it flew from one of the small trees. She was the first female blackcap of the year in the garden but she could have been the same female recorded in the berry bush a few months ago. The blackcap is a very common summer migrant for the most of the UK but around my area they stay all year round and as a result in February a male came to the garden and then last Tuesday another male was sighted in the fog just down the road.

Another highlight for today was the White wagtail who has been sighted yesterday and several times in the last few months after his arrival last Autumn. Today he was calling from the houses and he is very distinctive with a little yellow bit on his face.

The third special bird was a Chiffchaff which are usually widespread and breeding in the summer throughout the UK. Recently chiffchaffs have been staying in Britain all year round and as a result Slimbridge WWT recently had 3 and today OIdbury Power Station and other places have had a few. This is the first sighting of the year around the garden but every year we hear lots wherever we go in the summer and sometimes in the Autumn.

Other sightings

Flying over

• Lots of common, lesser black backed and black headed gulls
• 20+ wood pigeons
• 3 collard doves
• 1 magpie
• 4 green finches
• 40+ starlings
• 3 fieldfares
• 30+ redwings
• 3 adult male blackbirds
• Corvids
• 10 house sparrows

Trees

                                                                            Dunnock

 

                                                                  

                                                              1st winter male blackbird

                                                                      Mistle thrush

                                                                           Starling

                                                                  Female house sparrow

                                                                   Chiffchaff

• 30+ house sparrows
• 3 dunnocks
• 10 blackbirds- 1 1st winter male, 6 adult males, 3 adult female blackbirds
• 2 green finches
• 10+ gold finches
• 10+ chaffinches
• 30+ starlings
• 20 jackdaws
• 2 magpies
• 7 redwings
• 40+ Blue tits unusual numbers in the trees all day. Lots of them together and flying to every tree.
• 9 great tits
• Heard a few long tailed tits
• 1 Chiffchaff sighted and photographed briefly in the apple tree
• 1 gold crest heard
• 1 mistle thrush
• Several carrion crows

Opposite house

                                                                   White wagtail

• 1 White wagtail
• 20 feral pigeons
• 3 house sparrows
• 3 black headed gulls
• 30+ jackdaws

Garden

 

Female Blackcap

• 1 adult male blackbird
• 7 jackdaws- 1 on the 3rd post and the other 6 on the bird table or fence
• 2 house sparrows
• 1 blue tit on the 3rd post briefly
• 1 Female Blackcap

Other news
Glos Birds

• Smew at Cotwolds water park
• Waxwings still around Gloucestershire, Somerset and the old avon area
• Old Avon sightings http://avonbirding.blogspot.co.uk/

Somersets Rare Birds

• Lesser scaup (Blagdon Lake)
• Ringed necked duck (Hawkridge Resivour)
• Great white egret and smew (Ham Wall RSPB).
• Hawfinch (Bruton)
• Temmerincks stint (Steart)
• Scaup (Wall common)
• Black Redstart (Portishead)
• 4 Jack snipe (Sand point)

My Oldbury Power Station 16/12/12 sightings

Orchard

• 40+ fieldfares
• 5 great tits
• 7 wood pigeons
• 30+ goldfinches went to roost
• 2 great spotted woodpeckers flew over calling

Estuary

• 1 shelduck
• 2 black headed gulls
• 7 mallards
• 3 curlews heard

Lagoon 2

• carrion crows
• 4 gold finches
• 1 Water rail calling
• 3 starlings
• Several long tailed tits
• 2 dunnocks

Sightings to the Power Station

• 1 juv mute swan at Hill
• 30+ redwings- road to Power Station
• Carrion crows
• 40+ fieldfares flying around road and then they flew towards the orchard
• 4 mallards on the lake
• 1 gold crest on path to the River Severn

Birds I didn't see

http://www.opsbirds.webspace.virginmedia.com/

Sightings from areas around Glos including WAXWINGS

Sharpness

• 1 male sparrowhawk
• Corvids
• 3 buzzards
• Gulls
• Blackbirds
• Several chaffinches
• 20+ house sparrows

Purton

• 1 curlew - in field by the Berkeley Arms Pub at hide tide
• 1 adult shelduck- in field by the Berkeley Arms Pub at high tide
• 9 mallards on the canal
• Lots of gulls feeding on the remaining mud
• 30+ house sparrows
• 2 adult male blackbirds
• Corvids
• 1 female sparrowhawk

Breadstone

• 200+ fieldfares- together feeding in a field
• 50+ redwings
• Corvids
• 20+ chaffinches
• 30 house sparrows
• 1 buzzard
• 1 female sparrowhawk

Halmore

• Corvids
• 20+ redwings
• chaffinches
• house sparrows
• Blackbirds

Cheltenham

• 10 blackbirds
• Corvids
• gulls
• 50+ WAXWINGS flew over Mcdonalds and down Princess Elizabeth Way.
• Starlings
• 4 pied wagtails
• Feral pigeons

This weeks bird sightings in the town

Lots of rooks, carrion crows and jackdaws like normal. Also lots of starlings and house sparrows every where. Other birds:

• 16 magpies together down the road from the house
• 19 dunnocks
• 200+ gulls= black headed, herring and common gulls
• 30+ gold finches
• 3 pied wagtails
• 50+ redwing
• 50+ fieldfares
• 190+ blackbirds- Alot in the area around the garden as well as lots in the area feeding in the gardens after the frost dissapeared.
• 1 Male blackcap- Becoming more of a resident in the area and latest record of the year so far. Sighted on Tuesday 11th.
• 400+ wood pigeons
• 30 collard doves
• Several robins
• 100+ chaffinches

Weekend garden sightings

Not a lot of birds sighted over the two days

Bird sighted

                                                                        2 Feral pigeons landing

                                                                   Wood pigeon

 

• 10 Feral pigeons on the opposite house
• 1 pied wagtail
• 7 blackbirds
• 7 redwings
• 1 robin
• 6 gold finches
• Carrion crows
• Rooks
• Jackdaws
• Common and black headed gulls 
• 3 chaffinches
• 20+ starlings
• 1 wood pigeon in garden and 15 flew over
• A few collard doves
• Several magpies

Other sightings on the 9th

                                 Robin

• 2 cormorants- Stone (Glos)
• 1 great spotted woodpecker (M5 near Bristol)
• 1 kestrel (M5 near Bristol)
• 1 buzzard getting mobbed by a magpie (Near Stone Glos)
• 1 robin, 1 carrion crow and 2 chaffinches (Dursley Sculpture trail) 
• The resident female sparrowhawk and the resident buzzard (Berkeley Castle)
• 16 Magpies just down the road