25th August..... In Search of Migrants.

With a Wryneck turning up at Naphill on Friday & six Pied Flycatchers over the border in Herts yesterday, it seemed the right time to go in search of migrants at Ivinghoe Beacon. As the weather Prophets predicted a scorcher an early start was in order, arriving at the car park just after 7-30am (well that's early enough).

Things started well as we hit a purple patch straight away, with 4 Marsh Tits in the area of Rosebay Willow Herb on the path from the car park down to the S bend, where they continually returned to the Thistle stems, grabbing beak fulls of fluffy seed heads, flying off with them into the nearby bushes. Also present in the same spot: Blackcap, 3 Chiffchaff, 2 Whitethroat, Nuthatch & Willow Warbler. Making our way down to the Sheep Pens, 17 Lesser Black-backed Gulls were in the fields, as a Kestrel hunted the slope.

A very obliging Wheatear sat on top of the pens preening for a while, before it began actively feeding on insects on the ground around the pens.

Returning back up the slope to the Ridgeway path, we encounted 2 Redstarts using the fence posts along the hedgeline as look out positions, watching for prey in the grass below, one was seen to take a nice big green Caterpillar, they were in the company of a Song Thrush & a Robin.

By 9-00am we reached the watch point where Mike was on station, havin' seen a flew past Marsh Harrier nearly two hours earlier out in the Smog above the Vale. Lingered here for a while only gettin' a Swallow movin' through.

On the way back up hill to the car park we found 2 Garden Warblers picking off the ripening Elderberries.
A short drive round to Pitstone Hill, took the path along the eastern fenceline, came across 16 Corn Buntings, sat on the Hawthorn bushes eyeing the combine harvester, cutting the crop, no doubt the Buntings will mop up any spilt grain, as will the Yellowhammers present. A couple of Whitethroats & Meadow Pipits in this area. On reaching the intersecting path we headed over to the gulley, beyond the first hillock. Here we found a few Chiffchaffs, more Whitethroats, one of which was sharing a branch with a Lesser Whitethroat (good for comparison).

Common Blue feeding on Scabious.

Meadow Brown feeding on Harebell.
















 A Whinchat sat on the upper most twig of a Hawthorn near the top of the hillock.

Lower down the slope a Great Spotted Woodpecker did the same, few more Meadow Pipits on the bushes. At 10-30am 26 Swallows flew through purposefully heading north following the line of the hills, rounding off a successful morning on the Hills.
Don.












Images Copyright : Don Stone/Stewart Dennis.