Skylarks over the Cemetery.

Sunday 8th October 2023.

Painted Lady butterfly in the south east corner.

I was back over the Cemetery with my dogs again this morning, though I did leave it a bit late as we arrived around 11am. There were a lot of dog-walkers this morning, though all behaved well, with most having their dogs on their leashes during my stay here. A good variety of birds around this morning that included my first Skylarks of the Autumn flying high over the Cemetery. Two separate birds were heard, but they must have been very high as I failed to locate them. In fact, most of the passerines  flying over were very high today.

Above, Prickly Sow-thistle on one of the graves. Meadow Pipits constantly trickled over in small numbers. 

The Green Woodpecker made a welcome appearance, though the poor thing was being chased by a Magpie throughout the Cemetery. A single Swallow flew south, though it was quite high up that I assume it was one. What with these American Cliff Swallows seen in the UK, there was an outside chance it could of been one or just wishful thinking? How it fared is anyone's guess, but good to see anyway. Again, all the usual suspects present on this lovely sunny warm morning.

Above, this Chiffchaff was very vocal by the second Chapel in the northern half of the Cemy. Below, this was one of 6 Blue Tits foraging around this Chestnut tree for small insects.

As expected, the Red Admiral butterflies dominated the amount of butterflies present today, though there was a sprinkling of Small White’s, a couple of Speckled Woods and a single Painted Lady, which was on the bush in the south-east corner by the footpath. There was a report on Hants Birding that a male Redstart and a Firecrest were west of Fort Southwick, on Portsdown Hill,  this morning. Though we never saw any Ring Ouzels up on Portsdown Hill yesterday, there was a good number of them dotted around the east coast this morning and huge numbers of Redwing arrived this morning also in the north-east. Hopefully, I should be hearing this species when I walk the dogs in the evening next week.

Above, the Painted Lady butterfly was accompanied by several Red Admirals on the same bush. Below, a nice portrait of the Painted Lady.

The birds seen this morning included the following:

• Herring Gull
• Wood Pigeon
• Feral Pigeon
• Collared Dove
• Skylark (2)
• Meadow Pipit
• Pied Wagtail (3)
• Goldfinch
• Siskin
• House Sparrow
• Starling
• Robin
• Wren
• Blue Tit
• Great Tit
• Goldcrest
• Chiffchaff
• Green Woodpecker
• Carrion Crow 
• Magpie 
• Blackbird
• Swallow