Monday 31 October 2016


The Greenhouse Copse - looking very Autumnal

After some initial mist and fog, the day became sunny and warm, tee shirt weather on the last day of October!

The weather was to be enjoyed this morning, but the birding was slow, not much of note was found, the best of what I recorded were a GREY WAGTAIL along Ashes Lane, a CHIFFCHAFF at the Greenhouse Grounds, a flyover REED BUNTING and the raptors that were seen, which were BUZZARD and KESTREL.

In the fine, warm weather, I watched a light passage of WOOD PIGEONS flying south, plus I recorded 3 butterfly species, those being Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell and Small White, a nice bit of summer returning  :-)

So October ended with a bird list of 70 species, 3 lower than the mean average total for the previous 5 Octobers and 7 off the record October of 2010, making it the 6th best October tally out of the 15 years of recording. One species was added to Octobers 15 year combined species total - the Lesser Whitethroat, taking it to 101 species, the 3rd highest combined monthly total, behind April (113) and August (102).

Lets see what November brings!

2 comments:

Derek Faulkner said...

A good tally and position in the monthly lists, hopefully that will reduce your depression re. habitat loss and low bird numbers.

Pete Woodruff said...

Yes, the weather Warren, crazy but wonderful, and three butterfly species seen....nice.