Soil Hill; Isolation week 21

And so concludes my final week on Soil Hill before I return to Brazil to visit Lia, a trip that will take me away from my patch for nearly the entire autumn. The weather this week varied greatly but mainly consisted of wind and rain, but the occasionally sunny spells. Birdlife on the whole was reasonably good, especially with good numbers of gulls building up in the fields below Soil Hill. On a couple of occasions I took the scope out to sift through them but failed to find the desired Caspian. On my last full day I even took to scoping from the road but only got a half an hour in before a juvenile Buzzard flew low over and sent all the gulls away. Still there were good numbers of Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls, with the occasional Yellow-legged thrown in for good measure.

On the 15^th the week got off to an excellent start with a juvenile Redstart on Taylor Lane, although it was extremely elusive. On the same day I had a flyover Tree Pipit and a scattering of Willow Warblers. Five Common Snipe flew off the marsh at the bottom of the Hill as well. On the 17^th the Tree Pipit count increased to three, all grounded individuals, with one of the Sedge Warblers also making an appearance. On the 18^th a pair of Raven flew over in very windy conditions that otherwise made birding a serious challenge. The 19^th was a much livelier day with another appearance from last weeks Short-eared Owl, as well as three more Tree Pipits, now two Sedge Warblers and a Great Spotted Woodpecker. The two Raven reappeared on the 20^th, and they were joined by a flyover Crossbill and the aforementioned Common Buzzard, nicely rounding off my time birding the Hill, which started at the end of March no less.

-Short-eared Owl

-Northern Raven

-Common Buzzard

Species List:

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