A welcome change after the unseasonable heat of the late summer - today, Sunday 18th September was cooler after the rain of the previous day but warmed up quickly in the early sun. Low clouds quickly moved in but the day remained dry. The lack of wind meant that the riverside was quiet and every small sound could be heard, provided one stood still to avoid crunching dry fallen leaves and acorns under foot, as the rain, only about 7mm, had not penetrated the dense tree canopies of the old Oaks and Field Maples.
The ground under one old oak was thick with acorns, some plundered by impatient Jays and grey squirrels, breaking off twigs carrying unripened acorns. Others have ripened and fallen naturally - too many to be hauled away to a safe hiding place.
Guelder Rose plants have produced a bountiful crop of berries this year, which the birds will leave until much later in the winter when other fruits become scarce:
Hawthorn with still ripening haws and Guelder Rose on the right
with ripe red berries. The haws will be eaten first however.
Robins took full advantage of the perfect conditions for their songs to carry far along the river with 23 counted, some singing very close to their neighbours, sometimes just in the next tree at present. It seems as if some are increasing the volume to gain advantage. Not all were singing however, some being intent on foraging. It was good to see more starlings assembling in flocks although not in huge numbers (c35) - this morning they were seen flying from various areas to their day roost in a thicket.
Woodpigeons were quite numerous (64), chased off the fields to spend the day in the old oaks or lined up along the fence overlooking the southern drainage basin, a popular location for most wildlife still.
Skulking in low thickets or foraging in the dewy shade grass where the earth was still damp, blackbirds (6) were silent, apart from a sudden alarm call from one low down on the river, the cause a sparrowhawk, glimpsed dashing through a gap in the trees against the bright sky. Magpies don't need to keep quiet - and advertise their presence without a care, especially where young are still living in a group (8) - today their calls were especially aggressive in attempts to fend off squirrels and jays.
The jays (7) are very smart birds - in plumage and brain - today one was shouting out over the acorn-strewn patch under an old oak as if to frighten off any creature that approached. It needed every single acorn that lay below it - but will take more than a few days to cache them!
Corvids are never numerous here but 10 carrion crows were seen, and some heard, in scattered locations along the riverside. An old oak with branches extending over the river is popular with crows and great-spotted woodpeckers too - and today I noticed several new attempts to make holes in one of the branches, however the branch is not large enough for nesting, therefore it's probable that a crow is responsible for the work, using it's strong bill to prise off the bark and get into the old wood to extract insects.
Great-spotted woodpeckers have been very quiet over the summer and only one was seen today giving a loud but brief alarm call - later they will have the task of finding suitable trees in which to create new nest holes - normally they choose different nest sites each year, unlike the nuthatches.
They also have to adjust to a temporary loss of some potential trees downstream on the Arun where bridge- building is taking place. The oaks are protected but the disturbance will mean finding old trees in a quieter area here upstream. Fortunately the work should be finished within the year and the formerly wild river banks restored to their wildness. Three nuthatches were seen today, two calling loudly and another quietly tap-tapping in a thicket, not making a hole but eating a large seed or nut that it had wedged into a branch crevice. Their large claws are not much use for gripping seeds or nuts but are shaped to enable 'down hill' tree climbing.
The wren - another bird which has been quite silent, is now singing again - at least some are singing, with numbers increasing over the autumn - 10 were seen today, most singing. Chaffinches are still elusive, only 3 today and likewise song thrushes which are keeping a very low profile out of sight in the cool damp steep river banks, difficult to see in the dense shade as they are silent at present. One was seen flying down onto the river bank. On the river itself two solitary moorhens were seen paddling in different locations whilst out in the sun I heard and then saw about 20 linnets fly across in a group and later another 10 linnets off the field and into the trees - a welcome sight! Goldfinches were also seen in good numbers, total 60 in several groups, most singing in dense thickets and leafy trees, preferring the sunlit side.
Insects were numerous with good numbers of Speckled Wood butterflies, a few Large White butterflies and a Migrant Hawker dragonfly
With the increasing leaf fall, blue tits (about 40) and great tits (about 20) were more easily seen and becoming more vocal, the great tits just trying out their calls. Long-tailed tits (9) were seen following each other in a family group, calling softly, high in the willows over the river. Moving very fast through Field Maples and Oaks, giving contact calls, chiffchaffs (8) were as usual busy foraging and goldcrests (6) were seen in a sheltered blackthorn thicket and others in a conifer. Ever-present house sparrows were about in good numbers all along the riverside today (about 80) in colonies in the bramble patches, in blackthorn thickets, mixed hawthorn hedgerows and field margins, choosing, like the goldfinches, the sunny sides in which to warm up after the unusually cold night.
As the day warmed up, the low cloud cover increased, attracting house martins (about 20) and a few swallows (c4) foraging for insects between cloud and river and strong thermals meant that flying was easy for lazily circling herring gulls (24). Distant calls alerted me to two buzzards flying very high, then to two more, closer to the earth, close together, touching, play-displaying.
This morning's highlight was a treecreeper foraging on a poplar which I noticed whilst watching two wrens on a Guelder rose tree. The treecreeper was less than 2 meters away from me, making a thorough search for insects on the poplar trunk, creeping up about 3 meters then flying down to the roots and starting again a few centimetres around the circumference from its previous vertical route. I watched for a long time and it was still foraging when I left, after the wrens joined it on the poplar to forage amongst the roots, a robin flew across too and caught a large insect - and a calling chiffchaff foraged in the upper branches - all the while I stood still on the dry fallen leaves.
Crab apple tree - food for wildlife over the winter
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