🦡 Cotwall End Valley nature diary: my local patch
September 1: Early evening walk along the golf course. Six black-headed gulls on a fairway, all in winter plumage. Female sparrowhawk soaring over eastern slope.
September 2: Walks in the immediate area. Large white on the green. Swallow in westerly flight over the green. Adult and juvenile herring gulls in flight. Great black-backed gull in flight.
September 3: Early evening walk in the immediate area. Lesser black-backed gull on the telephone pole in Longfellow, waiting for the fox food to appear. Great black-backed gull in flight. Dusk walk in woodland. Two foxes seen. Several tawny owls heard but not seen.
September 4: Evening walk in the lower valley. Three common buzzards soaring over woodland. Male sparrowhawk plunging into the trees. Two rabbits on the grassland.
September 5: From Coleridge. Calling raven in flight. Another bird heard later but not seen. Two small whites. One large white. Longfellow, late evening. Two lesser black-backed gulls perched on roof, waiting for fox food to appear.
September 6: Late dusk walk in the woodland. One fox on the grassland. Sat by by a sett until dark but no badgers seen. Two tawny owls chasing each other across the path as I walked back. A brief look in almost darkness but looked like a couple of juveniles ‘playing’.
September 7: Walk around the green. Large white and a dark species either red admiral or small tortoiseshell. Grey heron passing overhead. Three swallows in flight across the valley. First goshawk of the year, in reasonably low flight over the valley.
September 8: On the drive and I heard a ring-necked parakeet. Looking up, I saw it in flight, heading up the western slope, as it passed over our home.
September 9: Walk in the immediate area. Small white in Browning, enjoying the sunshine.
September 10: Local walk. Ten wood pigeons feeding on the green. One starling in flight.
September 11: Walk around the green. Two separate common buzzards soaring over the valley. Lesser black-backed gull low over the green.
September 12: Grey heron in flight along the valley.
September 13: Several single lesser black-backed gulls in flight around the local area. Two starlings in flight over the green.
September 14: Still lots of juveniles around, with six species seen in the garden: Greenfinches, goldfinches, chaffinches, magpies, blue tits and great tits.
September 15: Two separate herring gulls in high flight over the valley. Common buzzard soaring low over woodland. Wood pigeons c.40 in woodland.
September 16: Small white in the land. Male and female bullfinch in trees alongside lower valley grassland. Chiffchaff in hawthorn tree on the grassland. Starlings c.16 in flight over Longfellow.
September 17: Flock of wood pigeons c.70 in low flight, heading to woodland below our bungalow.
September 18: Green woodpecker over fields beyond Wordsworth. Very late evening walk. Several carrion crows and magpies going to roost. Badger crossed the lane by the horse paddocks beyond Wordsworth.
September 19: Several male and female house sparrows in dense shrubs on the green. Lesser black-backed gull on the telephone pole in Longfellow, waiting for the fox food.
September 20: Three calling ravens low in flight, heading towards the western ridge and seen from the drive, early morning, with two in late evening.
September 21: Six house sparrows in shrubs alongside the green.
September 22: Two ravens soaring over lower valley woodland and seen from our bungalow.
September 23: Calling raven heard from the living room, looking out the window I saw five ravens in flight, heading into the woodland below our home. Two juvenile wood pigeons with three adults on grass just off the green.
September 24: Morning walk in the immediate area. Starlings c.15 and 7 in flight. Nine wood pigeons on the green. Three black-headed gulls in flight, winter plumage.
September 25: Ten wood pigeons, both adults and juveniles, feeding on the green. Mistle thrush in flight over Tennyson. Several starlings in flight. Calling jackdaw over the green.
September 26: From Coleridge: Three separate sightings of a jackdaw calling in flight. Calling raven landed in a garden tree.
September 27: Late dusk walk in local woodland. Two calling ravens flew into the lower valley to roost.
September 28: Walk in the immediate area. Large white on a dandelion flower and long-tailed tit in flight, both in Tennyson. 21 wood pigeons feeding on the green.
September 29: 8 starlings in flight over Tennyson. Lesser black-backed gull in flight over Tennyson.
September 30: Great black-backed gull in flight over Wordsworth.
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