Firecrest & two Woodpeckers over the Cemy.

Wednesday 15th November 2023.

This Firecrest popped out briefly from its Holm Oak cover a few times.

A much settled day with ‘wall to wall’ blue sky with a breezy north-westerly blowing across Highland Road Cemetery. Unfortunately, this lovely weather does bring out many dog-walkers, though thankfully, all were on leads today. There was a reasonable number of species around the Cemetery today that included very good views of the Green Woodpecker and even the Great Spotted Woodpecker put in a brief appearance. Best of all though, was a Firecrest flitting about the Holm Oaks near the entrance of the Cemetery; my second sighting of this species this month here on my local patch. Nineteen species were recorded this morning, which is about average for this time of year.

The species recorded this morning included the following:

• Green Woodpecker
• Great Spotted Woodpecker
• Firecrest
• Great Tit
• Blue Tit
• Goldcrest
• House Sparrow
• Starling
• Robin
• Wren
• Blackbird
• Herring Gull
• Wood Pigeon
• Feral Pigeon
• Collared Dove
• Carrion Crow
• Magpie
• Jay
• Goldfinch

Above, the female Green Woodpecker showed well this morning. Below, Prickly Sow-thistle still in flower on a few graves.

Above, plenty of Carrion Crows this morning present and below, the same could be said of the local Wood Pigeons. Easier to see now due to the leaves being down in most of the trees.

Most of the leaves on the trees are down now and this makes locating the bird in the trees a lot easier, though some of the ornamental trees are still sporting their golden leaves and they looked magnificent in the sunshine this morning. A few insects took advantage of the glorious sunshine with a few Hoverflies, Common Wasps and House Flies around flowering Ivy plants still. A sprinkling of plants were also still in flower with both Smooth and Prickly Sow-thistle, Yarrow and the odd Cats Ear plants still on show as well as a few carpets of Daisies.

Above, a few insects were out on the wing in the sunshine including Common Wasps, a female Syrphus species of Hoverfly (below).

Above, Common Field Mushrooms are still around in the long damp grass. Below, a Blue Tit shared the same leafless tree with a Great Tit.

It was interesting reading and looking at some of Hampshire's finest photographers posts on Facebook over the past few days. The female Long-tailed Duck was still attracting more admirers, including Christine Whiffen who incidentally found a Purple Sandpiper roosting with the waders on the Oyster Beds (see photo). I am going to do a ‘recky’ to see if there are actually any at Southsea Castle this week, despite the work being carried out there still incomplete. On a sad note, there have been reports of some photographers disturbing the Short-eared Owls on the Point Field at Farlington Marshes, just to get a photo of a bird that quite often just flies past you, totally oblivious of you being there. Sorry, I wont tolerate this when I am out in the field and will confront them about their behaviour. Sadly, there is no Warden for the reserve to keep an eye out for irresponsible behaviour and so it goes on. Over the past few days, the weather has been awful again, with heavy rain at times and 50mph winds here on the south coast, but it did produced another Leach’s Petrel again off Hill Head, found by the reliable Mark Francis again. Well done mate.

The Purple Sandpiper (middle bottom) among Dunlin, Grey Plover and Turnstone on the Hayling Oyster Beds. Photo by Christine Whiffen.