Friday October 20

A dull, cloudy morning with a few light showers and a light westerly breeze.

Given that this is a Hawfinch-winter, and bearing in mind that the last one, 2005/2006, produced up to five through the winter including one visible from our garden, I clearly needed to go out looking for them.

So with my focus firmly on birds, the first beastie to appear was naturally a moth. In fact it was a moth I had never seen before, although with my limited moth list this is not a particular surprise.

Red-green Carpet

The moth in question fluttered past me as I entered the suburb of Winyates Green, and unexpectedly landed at the top of a fence. The light was terrible and the rain started to fall, but I managed to get an image of it, a Red-green Carpet Chloroclysta siterata. Quite a common moth I believe, but one of the few still on the wing in late autumn.

The mild weather also allowed me to see a Hornet, but as the sun refused to shine, I soon reverted to the original plan of looking for birds. The woodland at Ipsley Alders contained a couple of tit/crest flocks, but all the crests were Goldcrests (as ever), and the one phylloscopus warbler I chanced upon turned out to be a Chiffchaff.

As I emerged from the woodland I found several flocks of Redwings heading south, the total of birds was at least 44, and with them came eight Chaffinches, and three Fieldfares. The latter are in bold type because they were a patch year-tick as I had failed to see any last winter.

So no Hawfinches, but I remain optimistic.

Friday October 13

My enthusiasm for doing this blog seems to be trickling down the plug-hole. Until today I had made no effort beyond keeping the feeding station in the garden topped up, and have been rewarded by regular visits of the usual species including up to 10 House Sparrows. One or two Chiffchaffs during September almost convinced me to set finger to lap-top (modern version of pen to paper), but I wasn't  so moved.

I did see a squashed Hedgehog along Alders Drive about three weeks ago, which at least means that they still existed up until this unfortunate individual's false move. They used to be so common here that we would get up to two live ones in the garden. Those days are now a distant memory.

So to today. It was rather breezy and mild so I walked around Arrow Valley Lake where everything was much as I remembered it. So much so that I am struggling to find anything interesting in my notebook. A moderately large flock of Long-tailed Tits had about three Goldcrests in tow, but nothing better than that.

A single adult Herring Gull was the only "unusual" bird on the lake. I use the term unusual very loosely here.

Herring Gull

Maybe next time there will be some ducks (other than Mallards).