Birdwatcher’s Diary No.44

Published on: 30 Aug, 2013
Updated on: 30 Aug, 2013

By Malcolm Fincham

Continuing the theme of my enjoyable recent heathland walks, but just too late to enter into my previous report, was another trip on a brightly sunlit evening (August 15) to Thursley Common.

Grasshopper on boardwalk at Thursley-Common.

Walking along the boardwalk lots of young lizards could be viewed basking in the evening sun and even a grasshopper made an appearance.

Swallow.

A good 30 or more swallows, both young and adult, could be seen feeding on flying insects over the marshland areas.

‘Shrike Hill’ on Thursley Common.

On arriving at an area locally known by birdwatchers as ‘shrike hill’, I was taken by surprise to see what I first guessed to be a kestrel – by its shape and size (jizz) and  also that it had spooked (as a bird of prey would) two green woodpeckers.

Juvenile green woodpecker spooked by something.

The woodpeckers called out as they flew with a yaffle sound, which is their old English name, sending them off in their undulating fight across the heathland.

A kestrel in flight taken a few days later in Shamley Green.

Once the ‘bird of prey’ settled in a pine tree not far away from me, I soon realised although rapture-like in flight it was in fact a cuckoo. Knowing that all our adult cuckoos were well on their way to their winter homes in Africa, I was momentarily perplexed as to what it might be.

Juvenile cuckoo in flight – a similar shape and colour as the kestrel.

Click to see website on tracked cuckoos.

Getting a closer look through my binoculars I realised by its facial features and rufus colouring that it was in fact a juvenile cuckoo and a very obliging one too.

Juvenile cuckoo.

It allowed me several pleasing pictures and my first ever record shots of a young cuckoo. I have also added a picture of an adult cuckoo that I took just a few months back for those who would like to compare.

Adult cuckoo photographed in May 2013 on Whitmoor Common.

On returning to Thursley Common on August 18 for an early afternoon walk, I was surprised to see the cuckoo was still in the same area feeding up on caterpillars and such-like, preparing for its own journey.

Such events always fascinate me – how such critters, never knowing their real parents, instinctively know exactly where they should migrate to.

Redstart.

Also that same afternoon I was pleased to hear what is the more incessant call of a redstart than the melodic one it most often makes earlier in the year

Click here for an example.

Family of redstarts.

And by waiting patiently, I was able to capture a few pictures of a family of them as they fed by some gorse bushes.

One of a family of stonechats on Thursley Common.

Wheatear spotted on ‘Shrike Hill’, Thursley Common.

Another group of birds seen close by were a family of stonechats, but my best sighting had to be up on ‘Shrike Hill’ – a female wheatear heading south on migration back to Africa.

A bird very much in decline in recent years is the spotted flycatcher, especially in this part of the country. It is one that has certainly been of great concern to me this year, having spent all summer in the hope of seeing one in the Guildford area.

Spotted flycatcher.

It was of great relief  to see not just one, but a family of them once again in Shamley Green, this time on August 23 – almost two months later than I mentioned about them in last year’s report.

On bank holiday Monday, August  26, I decided on a trip to Pulborough Brooks in West Sussex in hope of maybe catching sight of a few more types of bird migrating back south. This was especially as there had been a number of recent reports of yellow wagtails and whinchats, to name a but a few.

However, the only sightings for me that day where distant views across the brooks of a greenshank and several green sandpipers.

A clouded yellow – one of several at Pulborough Brooks.

One migrant of a different type I did see several of and took some better pictures of than the one I featured in my previous report was of the butterfly kind.

Clouded yellow.

This was a clouded yellow, I  even got  a rare picture of one as it opened its wings to take flight. I am informed that the clouded yellow, of which most originate from North Africa, occasionally migrate across the English Channel to the UK.

Click here for more.

One of a few signs that summer is slowly drawing to close, at Pulborough and in the Guildford area over the last week or so, is that a few robins, having finished their breeding season and having gone through their moult, are starting to sing their pleasant, yet to my ears, an almost mournful winter song.

Click here for a You Tube clip.

Family of young song thrushes almost ready to fledge at Pulborough Brooks.

A good sign that summer is still hanging on however was that I noticed, just next to a footpath, a song thrush’s nest with what must be a second (or maybe even third) brood of fledglings.

A fire crew put out the blaze on Whitmoor Common.

A month of mostly dry and sunny weather can have a few draw backs. A bird watching visit to Whimoor Common on the evening of Thursday, August 29, was interrupted when I noticed  smoke and some flames starting to rise from the heathland.

I rushed across to the area, and breaking a few silver birch saplings to use to beat the flames, and with the assistance of another guy already at the scene, we managed to contain the fire long enough before we made a retreat and let the ‘professionals’ take over. Firefighters then arrived to do their good work.

Click her to see separate story.

A hedgehog arrives and helps itself to a few morsels left out for the cat!

Back at home, or to be precise in my back garden, it’s been a real treat to go out late in the evening over the last few weeks and watch at least two hedgehogs.

Having made a few ‘hoggy’ sized gaps in my fences this has given them the freedom to roam.

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