Wall lizards and a fox enjoying the sun.....

It dawned nippy with a light south-easterly and clear, blue sky. The sun rising over the sea soon warmed things up but there was little in the way of visible migration first thing. Five redwings seen heading north over the house from the front room window were the only ones today. In the garden from eight, a typically early brambling flew north calling, then a couple of siskins east. Four meadow pipits, a couple more siskins and ten jays completed a poor garden viz mig session. The feeders, on the other hand, were alive as ever with lots of chaffinches and gold finches, endless great and blue tits making off with whole peanuts, and the two now-resident coal tits up to their usual trick of flicking all the seeds out of the hoppers until they find the single bit of grain that satisfies their pickiness. I've now concluded that it's not the jackdaws emptying all the feeders of   seeds, it's these two coal tits.

Down at Old Shute at 9.15am, in warm, still conditions, ten chaffinches were walking around in the sycamores, with a couple of jays, two goldcrests, three blackbirds, and a skylark then pied wagtail east overhead.

Then onto Old Station Road (previously Coombe Bottom). Aside from the now resident and still baffling grey 'willow warbler'......[right, bed time - to be continued : ) ]

I was rather hoping to get a nice Pallas's given the time of year and south-easterlies but no, I stumbled into what I assumed to be a new yellow-browed warbler! This one was initially calling loudly on Castle Road, with two goldcrests, before looping down over the houses and into Ventnor Park, where it continued to call for about a minute in the vicinity of the band stand before falling silent.

Finally after a couple of weeks of constant westerlies the breeze swung to south-easterly at some point yesterday, with murk at dawn today, producing an instant, all be it modest, pick-up in the birds. Visible migrants heading mostly east or north from the garden between 7.18am and 8.20am included:

Brambling: 1
Song thrush: 5
Redwing: 73
Blackbird: 5
Fieldfair: 2
Goldfinch: 120
Chaffinch: 17
Merlin: 1
Starling: 64
Jay: 5
Linnet: 1
Meadow pipit: 1

I then got a lift with Andy Butler to Haddon's Pits, which were somewhat quieter than we expected, but produced:

Blackbird: 17
Pied wagtail: 1
Song thrush: 1
Raven: 2
Peregrine: 1 male
Goldfinch: 22
Kestrel: 1
Siskin: 6
Redwing: 2
Goldcrest: 3
Song thrush: 1
Chaffinch: 1
Redpoll: 1
Chiffchaff: 1

Andy and I then checked Coombe Bottom, which was largely quiet (we failed to connect with the tit flock), producing:

Blackbird: 3
Jay: 17
Goldcrest: 5
Chiffchaff: 1
Chaffinch: 2
Song thrush: 1

Had a walk in the afternoon down Southgrove Road, where I had:

Jay: 4
Blackbird: 3
Chaffinch: 15

And at The Grove:

Jay: 1
Goldcrest: 2

....and, finally, at dusk in Ventnor Park:

Goldcrest: 11!

I'm getting more and more lazy as the autumn slips into winter, hence the rather boring lists of not very much below....

Overcast with a light easterly breeze, and chilly. I got up into the garden at 7.38 am, with visible migration highlights as follows:

Chaffinch: 19
Jay: 9
Song thrust: 1
Goldfinch: 36
Raven: 2
Linnet: 3
Peregrine: 1
Blackbird: 2

Coombe Bottom just after 9am produced:

Jay: 26
Chaffinch: 14
Blackbird: 10
Goldfinch: 15
Redwing: 1
Goldcrest: 6
Skylark: 1
Song thrush: 2
Chiffchaff: 1

Along Southgrove Road:

Chaffinch: 10
Jay: 6
Linnet: 1
Pied wagtail: 1
Blackbird: 1
Raven: 1

At The Grove:

Jay: 3
Blackbird: 1
Goldcrest: 1
Chaffinch: 2

At the Alma Road sycamore clump:

Blackbird: 1
Grey wagtail: 1
Goldfinch: 10

Along the slopes around La Falaise:

Goldfinch: 19
Blackbird: 1
Linnet: 5
Pied wagtail: 1

On Steephill and Week Down (by which time I was almost asleep!):

Meadow pipit: 1
Chaffinch: 2
Jay: 2
Goldfinch: 1
Linnet: 1
Blackbird: 1
Skylark: 3
Raven: 1
Siskin: 1

Westerly wind, with low cloud shrouding the higher downs and bright conditions down in the Undercliff. Highlights included the re-appearance of the washed-out, grey willow warbler in its favoured spot below Ravenscourt on Ocean View Road, two firecrests at Old Station Road and another two firecrests in an old man's beard tangle at Monk's Bay, with two black redstarts at Steephill Cove.

8 November,2012

Home Garden
Siskin: 11
Chaffinch: 18
Blackbird: 2
Bullfinch: 1
Linnet: 1
Pied Wagtail: 1
Redpoll: 4
Jay: 3
Goldfinch: 7
Grey Wagtail: 1

7 November 2012

Old Shute
Goldcrest: 1
Blackbird: 3
Siskin: 1
Chaffinch: 15
Bullfinch: 1
Jay: 1

Penn/Coombe Bottom
Goldcrest: 2
Blackbird:  10
Chaffinch: 18
Goldfinch: 9
* Yellow Browed Warbler: 1
Greater Spotted Woodpecker: 1
Bullfinch: 2
Song Thrush: 5
Jay: 2
Pied Wagtail: 1
Chiffchaff: 1
Redpoll: 1
Raven: 1

Ventnor Downs
Jay: 2
Chaffinch: 14
Meadow Pippit: 1
Dartford Warbler: 1
Blackbird: 1
Song Thrush: 1

Nansen
Blackbird: 10
Jay: 4
Goldfinch: 6
Chaffinch: 2
Redpoll: 1
Brambling: 1

Landslip
Chiffchaff: 2
Jay: 7
Blackbird: 6
Goldcrest: 2
Chaffinch: 4

Horseshoe Bay
Nothing

The Grove
Jay: 2
House Sparrow: 3

Southgrove Road
Jay: 3
Linnet: 2
Chaffinch: 7