Soil Hill; Isolation week 20

  Although not as lively as last week, it was another good week on Soil Hill with a scattering of migrants and another patch and year tick, bringing me up to the landmark 100 for the year at the close of play for the week. The patch tick was one that I have had on the agenda for a while now; Yellow-legged Gull. I’ve been keeping a close eye on the large gulls that have built up in the mown fields as the farmers have been scalping the grass, so I was very pleased when a juvenile flew past me on the 10^th. Initially I was drawn to its pale primary windows, and was pretty pleased after checking other features. I received confirmation from TDJ and GCT so was pretty pleased with that. On the 14^th there were more gulls moving in the afternoon and I picked out two more juveniles flying past with good numbers of Herring Gulls and Lesser Black-backed Gulls.

  The year-tick was one that I was not expecting due to their apparent scarcity this year, but on the afternoon of the 14^th a Short-eared Owl flew across the hill being closely mobbed by a pair of crows. Initially I did not think too much of it, assuming it was one of the regular local owls, but was soon informed of my mis-identification after putting my photo on Twitter.

  Migrant numbers have fluctuated during the week, with Willow Warblers being the flavor of choice with peak counts of 17 on the 12^th but otherwise no more than 6. A Common Buzzard on the 13^th was a nice species I have not seen for a while. Wheatears peaked at two on the 8^th with a single individual remaining for most of the week. Two Snipe flew over on the same date, 2 Tree Pipit flew over on the 12^th as did a flock of around 20 House Martins. Mistle Thrush numbers arrived in the top fields this week as well, presumably exhausting the supply of worms in the lower fields. My top count was 33 but I get the impression there is more…

-Yellow-legged Gull

-Short-eared Owl

-Common Buzzard

Complete Species List:

Soil Hill: Canada Goose, Mallard, Common Pheasant, Feral Pigeon, Stock Dove, Common Wood Pigeon, Eurasian Collared Dove, Common Swift, Common Moorhen, Common Snipe, Northern Lapwing, Eurasian Curlew, Black-headed Gull, Common Gull, European Herring Gull, Yellow-legged Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Eurasian Sparrowhawk, Common Buzzard, Short-eared Owl, Little Owl, Common Kestrel, European Green Woodpecker, Eurasian Magpie, Western Jackdaw, Rook, Carrion Crow, Coal Tit, Eurasian Blue Tit, Great Tit, Eurasian Skylark, Sedge Warbler, Barn Swallow, Common House Martin, Willow Warbler, Common Whitethroat, Eurasian Wren, Common Starling, Mistle Thrush, Common Blackbird, European Robin, Northern Wheatear, Dunnock, House Sparrow, Pied Wagtail, Meadow Pipit, Tree Pipit, Common Chaffinch, Eurasian Bullfinch, Common Linnet, European Greenfinch, European Goldfinch, Eurasian Siskin, Common Reed Bunting,