August 2024 - broadening

 So, this blog started out documenting visible migration of birds around Ventnor and elsewhere in the Isle of Wight Undercliff. I've decided to broaden its scope to all wildlife in this area. Stay tuned for posts....

Ventnor, 16th September 2023

 Bit of a blogging hiatus again (here at least. I have a main website now, click here). I'll probably post both here and over there.

Anyway, vis mig is beginning to ramp slowly and at Ventnor East Cliffs 7.30-8...

Alba Wag: 3e, 

Meadow Pipit: 3 in off

Phylosc: 3

Then down in Ventnor Bay 8-8.30:

Siskin: 50+ e in three groups

Let's hope it's a good autumn! 

Wednesday 19th October 2022

 With a brisk easterly breeze and overcast conditions I could be forgiven for expecting a bit of excitement today. Not a bit of it! Three fire crests invent the park with a highlight. Virtually no visible migration; just three alpha wagtails and a goldfinches, chaffinches and siskins.

Back in Ventnor for a few weeks

It’s 9th August 2022 and I returned to Ventnor from Cornwall for a few weeks of early autumn birding on the old patch.

I parked the van up on Ventnor Downs last night and awoke at 7.30am. The whole area is parched by drought and birds were few and far between. 

Around the Coombe Bottom Rim:

Redstart: 1

Common Whitethroat: 5

Blackcap: 2

Willow Warbler: 10

Swallow: 22

That was about it!

Later in the afternoon, checked Nansen Hill:

Whitethroat: 3

And, briefly, Steephill Dowm:

Willow warbler: 1

So, an uneventful and very hot day. We have three more days of 30+ degree heat then we’ll finally get a bit of disruptive weather.

Mid summer lull

Mmm. It's that time of year - mid July 2019. Nothing much happening around Ventnor. But there are hints of movements to come. Have had a few swifts passing over Ventnor Downs on recent evenings. The local breeders are still around, but I think you can tell local nesters from birds passing through. And linnet families are going to form larger flocks up on the downs, in with the meadow pipits. 

October 2017

I've trying a new approach to accounting for birding here. Rather than post a narrative account for each day, I'll simply build a monthly systematic list of notable counts and sightings. I've been away, so this starts on 11th October.





Chiffchaff

Royal Hotel: 3 (11th);
Bonchurch: 7 (14th);
Ventnor Park: 5 (14th)

Yellow-browed warbler

Coombe Bottom: 2 (when??)
Down Lane: 1 (when?)
Trinity Street: 1 (13th)
East Dene: 1 (14th)

Goldcrest

Royal Hotel: 5 (11th); 8 (14th)
Bonchurch: 10 (14th)
Ventnor Park: 5 (14th) 

Goldfinch

Ventnor viz mig: 300 (14th)

Redpoll

Ventnor viz mig: 2 (14th)

Two willow warblers, two (local) blackcaps, and two swifts west over East Cliffs. Overcast, warm, with drizzle now and again.....feels good for a melodious warbler.........

Male pied fly and 50+ whitethroats reported up on Ventnor Downs.

Rained continuously all afternoon.......

Blowy from the west and overcast. A cursory glance at the East Cliffs produced a chiffchaff and invisible blackcap singing to itself. 

Westerlies and showers with dry sometimes sunny intervals.

Two willow warblers at East Cliffs first thing; 20-odd swifts.

Just five willow warblers and a female blackcap at East Cliffs today, with a male sparrowhawk through there.

Finally the birds are starting to move properly in Ventnor, with a Pylosc flock of 20 odd willow warblers on Zig Zag Road and another 15 willows and chiffchaff and whitethroat at Devonshire Terrace, and three more willows at Wheelers. Ten sand martins headed east with 10 swallows. 60 odd swifts in the area.

It's nice to be back on the island after a few weeks away. Had a quick look down East Cliffs this morning and was rewarded by views of fledgeling blackcaps! There's been a male singing in The Glen for the summer and I clocked an adult female but proving successful breeding is nice.

There were 60+ swifts feeding over Ventnor Heights - presumably a mix of local breeders and early movers hanging around to feed. There was a similar number here yesterday.

Two swallows rushed west past Salisbury Gardens this morning too - a hint of early migration.  

A nice lot of activity around the East Cliffs this morning. At least 30 willow warblers, many in song, chasing each other about in the early (well, 8am!) sun, then shooting inland across roofs of nearby houses. The valley on the cliff by Dudley Road CP was full, with birds moving between this and the tamarisk-hedged gardens. A berry-laden ivy was attended by six blackcaps, and a whitethroat was feeding in blackthorn on the cliff top, with a second near the sun dial. A yellow-wag flew in off a while later and swallows and house martins had started to trickle in off by 10am. The outer breakwater of the Haven had six wheatears - a record count for here I think!

This area - the East Cliffs - consistently fills up with birds when things are moving. 

Quick walk around St Lawrence

Finally back from Colombia and recovered from the inevitable bug, so I decided to have a quick walk through St Lawrence - with any luck the core 'recording area' of a future Bird Observatory......

Highlights in the warm murk were seven song thrushes and twelve blackbirds along the fence line above Woody Bay, west of the coastguard cottages. Four meadow pipits emerged from the tussocky grass here too and fifteen goldfinches headed quickly east in a tight flock. Just inland, two chiffchaffs were a pleasant surprise in the SWA willow bed, with a treecreeper and four goldcrests there too. Later, two goldcrests were in birches on Love Lane, Steephill Cove, with ten blackbirds and a song thrush at the putting green in Ventnor Park at dusk.

Yellow-browes at Royal Hotel, Monks Bay and Old Station Road, with a firecrest at Royal Hotel and Grove Car Park.

Yellow-browed again calling at Ventnor Park, with two firecrests there, this morning, and another yellow-browed reported at Bonchurch Old Church on RBA.

In the evening, between five and seven black redstarts feeding on St Catherines Church, flycatching in the evening sun.

It's been another really warm day, hardly conducing to thrilling bird movements, although fifteen odd blackbirds and a couple of small (song?) thrushes chasing each other around Grove / St Catherines churchyard late afternoon suggests things have picked up a bit. There was a small party of c.15 goldfinches in the churchyard too.

Earlier, the Ventnor Park tit flock produced 3 chiffchaffs, and there were a couple of more elsewhere.

Alba wags trickle through, with around 20 during the day, up to 30 siskins, four or five skylarks, 20-odd chaffinches and, well, that's about as good as viz mig got......  

Visible migration picking up again

RBA reports that the Ventnor Park yellow-browed warbler was still present this morning and, in the  afternoon, I finally managed to connect with it, calling in street trees along the stream. I'll assume this was the same as I had here a couple of weeks back - however unlikely that is!

This morning in the garden was slightly more interesting, with increasing numbers of birds on the move, although chiffchaff numbers continue to fall:

Siskin: 20
Blackbird: 1
Meadow pipit: 3
Goldfinch: 41
Chaffinch: 3
Linnet: 7
Crossbill: 2
Alba wagtail: 7
Redpoll; 1
Thrush spp: 1
Chiffchaff: 1
Wood pigeon: 20

The walk down Zig Zag Rd produced....

Linnets: 2
Alba wags: 3
Chiffs: 5
Jay:2
Skylark: 1
Goldfinch: 20

Grove Car Park:

Goldfinch: 16
Siskin: 10
Chiffchaff:1
Alba wags: 5
Linnet: 3
Redpoll: 1
Blackbird: 2
Chaffinch: 2

Winter Gardens:
Goldfinch: 42
Siskin: 1
Mipits: 2
Alba wags:3
Stonechats: 2
Blackbirds: 1

Alma Rd:
Chiffchaff: 1

La Falaise to Myrtle Bay:

Oystercatcher: 2
Linnet: 2
Blackbird: 1
Blackcap: 1
Goldcrest: 1
Chiffchaff: 4
Goldfinch: 1

Ventnor Park:

Chiffchaff: 4
Blackbird: 5
Goldfinch: 27
Goldcrest: 2
Jay: 2
Grey wag: 1
Yellow-browed: 1 (1.40pm, calling by stream)

Castle Court:
Jay: 1
Chiffchaff: 5
Song thrush: 1
Blackbird: 1
Linnet: 20

Yellow-browed still in Ventnor Park....

Iain Outlaw got onto the yellow-browed in Ventnor Park, east of the bandstand this morning, along with two firecrests......In the afternoon, the yellow-browed was still present and calling in the small copse in the NW corner of Old Station Road.

In the garden first thing, the upswing in visible migration was immediately clear:

Linnet: 113
Meadow pipit: 11
Alba wagtail: 5
Starling: 1
Swallow: 10
Goldfinch: 30
Grey wagtail: 1
Blackbird: 2
Siskin: 6
Chaffinch: 5
Redpoll: 20
Crossbill: 2

Tristis chiff, and yellow-browed still

Southerlies and showers in the morning, very warm. The garden first thing produced:
Linnet: 51
Meadow pipit: 4
Chaffinch: 16
Goldfinch: 5

Grove Car Park was lively:
Tristis chiffchaff: 1
Chiffchaff: 20
Chaffinch: 7
Blackbird: 4
Meadow pipit: 1
Alba wagtail: 1

The yellow-browed warbler showed well and was calling on and off between 1.30 and 2.30pm at Old Station Road.

Bit more lively...and a yellow-browed....

Swirling weather system off to the west drawing south-westerlies and showers over the south-west as far east as the island. Still easterlies across northern England. Immediately obvious that more birds have arrived this morning, although it has started blustery, so not easy to pick things out.

Grove Car Park and the church yard had a tit flock with:

Goldcrest: 2
Chiffchaff: 20
Blackbird: 19
Goldfinch: 3
Grey wagtail: 1
Alba wagtail: 1

At around 1.50pm I went up to Old Station Road. I entered the loop path via the west gate. As I got to the top of the first stretch, by the chalets, where the path turns right, a yellow-browed started to call up ahead! I rushed up to the kissing gate, and got onto the bird calling continuously from the hawthorn in the fence line just beyond the NT sign. I watched as it called agitatedly for several minutes, then realised what it was on about - a kestrel sitting on its perch below the telegraph wires! The YBW continued to call loudly, giving the best views I've ever had - the pale smudge of a crown stripe was even obvious (no, not a Pallas's, nor eastern-crowned!).

Three ouzels at the base of Coombe Bottom.