Local Wildlife Sightings, October 2025

 Following the first 'named' storm of the autumn on the 3rd and 4th, high pressure dominated in the first half of October, with variable amounts of cloud, no appreciable rain and hardly any wind. Very few butterflies survived into the new month, with no 'blues' seen at all and hardly any 'whites'. Autumn bird passage had died down, although a few (presumably migrant) Meadow Pipits were seen and heard in the fields surrounding Royston. Several Chiffchaffs remained into October: I wonder whether any will over-winter locally. Smallish flocks of (mainly) Lesser Black-backed Gulls roamed the fields, although finding food must have been hard work except when following the plough. One or two 'Herring Type' gulls were also seen. I photographed one in flight (image below): is it a Herring Gull or a Yellow-legged Gull? Unfortunately, the legs were tucked in. After a quiet early autumn, Ravens were again seen and/or heard in various places.

'Herring-type' Gull in Flight, Therfield, 1 October

Whilst reports of swarms of Ladybirds may have been exaggerated, I certainly saw plenty - usually sitting on leaves. Ladybird 'instars' were also common. A few shield bugs put in belated appearances near the house. Here are a few early October insect images.

Ladybird emerging from a late 'Instar', Royston, 2 October

Red-legged Shield Bug, Royston, 2 October

Rhopalid Bug, Royston, 6 October

During the middle of the month, the weather became dry but cloudy, as a large area of high pressure established itself over the UK. Bird migration was obvious, with reports of flocks of up to several hundred Redwings, as well as a few Fieldfares, seen in Hertfordshire flying over from the east. I found a flock of 40-50 Redwings feeding on berries and on the ground in a field close to the house on the 13th. However, they were gone the next day and indeed there were very few reports of Redwings in Hertfordshire in the latter stages of the month. It seems that there has been a larger than usual influx of Crossbills from the continent in our area, with flocks of birds reported in flight. I made another visit to Scales Park on the 16th, again hoping to see a Marsh Tit, which had so far eluded me in Hertfordshire. My luck was in - not only did I see a Marsh Tit and hear at least one other, but I also saw and heard small parties of Crossbills feeding amongst the many pines in this 'mixed' woodland - the closest to my house that I have ever recorded this species. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any photos to show here. I wonder whether any of the Crossbills will stay, or will they move on, like the Redwings?

Otherwise, the middle of October was rather quiet, and I packed away my macro lens with hardly any insects, apart from a few bumble bees and wasps, to photograph. Distressing news came from the garden, as I found a dead Great Tit near the greenhouse at the bottom of the garden. I assumed that it had flown into the greenhouse glass, but a couple of days later a dead male Greenfinch was present in exactly the same place. By the time I found a second dead Greenfinch, again in the same place, I was becoming very worried. At least they showed no signs of disease, as a garden feeder was not too far away. I started to look round the garden and quickly found the culprit - a cat that was sitting, concealed, in bushes close to the feeder. I moved the feeder to a higher position, close to the house and made my opinions of the cat clearly known, although it has still been coming into the garden - previously, I had had no trouble from cats for several years. No more dead birds have been found since. This all may sound trivial, but cats kill up to 100 million small animals per year in the UK. Without them (fat chance) we would be giving our wildlife a much better chance to flourish.

Fallow Deer, Therfield, 8 October

On the 24th I went on another walk round the villages of Reed and Therfield. 'Storm Benjamin' had passed through the area the previous day, and I was hoping that it might have brought some interesting (migrant?) birds with it. However, once again the area was pretty quiet, with no sign of winter thrushes and, surprisingly, very few finches or buntings. Little Grebes were still at Phillup's Lake and, on my return down the Icknield Way, a tractor put up a (returning for the winter?) flock of 120 Golden Plovers. A single Red Admiral butterfly was seen, although the daytime temperature never rose above 12C.

Some of the flock of 120 Golden Plovers, seen off the Icknield Way between Royston and Therfield

UK Wildlife Sightings, October 2025

 After a very busy start to October I finally had a day to myself on the 7th. The choice of where to go was a 'no-brainer', since a Red-tailed Shrike was 'showing well' on the National Trust reserve at Dunwich Heath. Red-tailed Shrike (previously known as Turkestan Shrike - it breeds in central Asia) would be a world 'lifer' for me. I would also get the chance to photograph the bird. I parked at RSPB Minsmere (free parking for me - I do come from Yorkshire.....) and walked the mile or so to view the bird near the coastguard cottages. I wasn't disappointed: shrikes have the endearing (for bird watchers) habit of sitting on the tops of bushes looking for prey and this bird didn't disappoint: it had quite a small territory (just a couple of large bushes), but seemed able to catch lots of prey items and store some in its larder inside one of the bushes. It was also a handsome adult male (most of the shrikes that are seen in the UK on passage are rather dowdy juveniles) - even better! Keen / professional photographers were having a field day, trying to catch the bird in flight and/or eating prey. I noticed that in some of the online images posted the bird had mealworms in its bill: a bit naughty, since it means that it was being fed in an attempt to keep it in the area. Anyway, here are a few (of many) photographs that I took.

Red-tailed Shrike, Dunwich, 7 October

Red-tailed Shrike, Dunwich, 7 October

Red-tailed Shrike with Prey (a Moth?), Dunwich, 7 October

After I had had my fill of the shrike, I went looking for Dartford Warblers nearby, seeing at least three including a recently fledged juvenile (2nd or 3rd brood?) and hearing others. Later, I wandered round the Minsmere reserve with (limited) highlights being a rather late Hobby and an obliging Stonechat (image).

Stonechat, RSPB Minsmere, 7 October

This began a sequence of four trips outside my area in eight days, starting with a visit to RSPB Snettisham on the 10th to see a Short-toed Lark, which had been present a few hundred yards north of the beach car park for several days. This bird took longer to find, despite the presence of several birdwatchers, as it searched for seeds in vegetation between the high tide line and the coastal path. However, after about an hour I was able to get decent views and one or two photos of this bird - my second UK record. Following this, I had a good look tound the RSPB reserve and beyond. Cranes had been reported in an inland field, but they were not there when I looked. Instead, I did see the small flock of feral Snow Geese that have been at Snettisham for many years, mingling with a large flock of Greylags.

Short-toed Lark, Snettisham, 10 October

Greylag and feral Snow Geese, Snettisham, 10 October

The following day, I was off again - this time to Dungeness, to do a reconnaissance trip ahead of leading an RSPB Local Group members' visit the following weekend. The weather was dull and misty and there was little to excite me during a two hour visit to the RSPB reserve. However, down at the national nature reserve I was lucky to catch sight of a singing male Black Redstart, on one of the power station buildings. The garden that surrounds the old lighthouse was full of small birds, eagerly feeding on small insects. Most were Chiffchaffs, presumably passing through the area, but there were at least two Goldcrests and possibly a Willow Warbler here. I took several photographs, some of which revealed differences in the plumages of the Chiffchaffs. The two that I have included below possibly refer to different races (Collybita and Abietinus or Tristis) or a mixed race bird: assigning Chiffchaffs to specific races is extremely difficult for the experts, let alone me.

Chiffchaff (common UK race, collybita?), Dungeness NNR, 11 October

Chiffchaff (a paler bird, possibly ssp. Abietinus or Tristis?), Dungeness NNR, 11 October

Also seen near the power station were two very tame Red Foxes, which had apparently been fed from a car before I arrived - this may explain why they were so approachable!

Red Fox, Dungeness NNR, 11 October

The bird watching trips continued on the 14th when, for a change, I visited an inland site (Rutland Water) to look for what would be my second UK Baird's sandpiper. The bird had been around for a week, and in the previous few days had restricted itself to feeding in a small creek on one side of the Whitwell Peninsula. I had naively expected to see the bird trotting round the edge of the reservoir, but this was not the case. I and a handful of other birdwatchers were unable to locate it, although it had been reported around lunchtime (I arrived mid-afternoon). I walked well beyond its apparent range without success. However, as I was about to give up when I met a local bird watcher, whose wife had discovered the bird. We discussed its habits, and I realised that it could be further up the bank, away from the water. We still couldn't find it and I headed back to the car: he said he would wave his hands if he saw it. You can guess what happened next. I walked back and there it was, superbly camouflaged as it walked very slowly amongst the pebbly shoreline, a short distance from the water but with a low profile. There's no way that I would have found it on my own and I'm very grateful for being called back! I was able to get close enough to the bird for some decent photos, a couple of which are shown below.

Baird's Sandpiper, Rutland Water, 14 October

Baird's Sandpiper, Rutland Water, 14 October

After several days of calm, dull weather, the RSPB trip to Dungeness on the 19th coincided with the arrival of rain. However, most of our bird watching was done in dryish (if very dull) conditions and we ended up with a bird list of 83 species recorded, including Firecrest and Black Redstart (seen outside the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway Cafe!). As I was leading, I didn't get much time for photography. However, unlike at Cley in September, I did manage to photograph one of six Cattle Egrets seen at the RSPB reserve, standing on the back of a cow. Gull identification proved a headache, as usual, but I'm pretty sure that I saw both juvenile and adult Yellow-legged Gulls, with a likely adult shown in the image below. Fortunately, most of the rest of our LG members don't have the same hang-ups with larger gulls that I do, and were happy to move on......

Cattle Egret standing on a Cow, RSPB Dungeness, 19 October

A Mixture of Juvenile, Immature and Adult larger Gulls with probable Yellow-legged Gull second left, RSPB Dungeness, 19 October

I was back in 'twitching' mode on the 21st, when I visited Eyebrook Reservoir (on the border of Rutland and Leicestershire) to look for a juvenile American Golden Plover, which was associating with a large flock of Eurasian Golden Plovers. Low water levels at the reservoir allowed the plovers to spend time on the mud a long way away from observers on the road that runs round the reserve, but this bird (which is slightly smaller and much greyer than the Golden Plovers and has a more obvious white supercilium) tended to stay a little way away from them, on its own for most of the time. I managed a few 'record shots' of the bird, with a couple (taken in different places, as the flock took to the air every few minutes) shown below.

American Golden Plover (smallest bird, just to the left of the Lapwings) with Lapwings and European Golden Plovers, Eyebrook Reservoir, 21 October

'Record Shot' of American Golden Plover, Eyebrook Reservoir, 21 October

Wildlife of the Spanish Pyrenees

 In mid-September I took a break from wildlife watching in the UK to go on a walking and general interest holiday with my partner, Helen, to the Spanish (Catalan) Pyrenees, staying in an excellent hotel in the village of Ribes de Freser, surrounded by majestic hills and mountains, as well as flower-filled meadows. Wildlife was abundant, with many butterflies on the wing including at least three species of fritillary. Most were identifiable, but one common type of grizzled skipper (image below) proved to be tricky. I have plumped for Rosy Grizzled Skipper as the most likely candidate. Most of the other common species (Wall, Speckled Wood, Adonis and Common Blues, Comma, Clouded Yellow, Painted Lady, Large and Small White etc.) can be seen in the UK or are widespread in Europe, but a few were different, including Spanish Brassy Ringlet, which was a new one for me.

Rosy Grizzled Skipper (?), Spanish Pyrenees

Dragonflies were less common, but I did see both Red-veined Darter and Emperor, the female of the latter laying eggs in a small water feature in the village of Queralbs.

Female Emperor Dragonfly, Spanish Pyrenees

We saw abundant birdlife, with White Wagtails and Black Redstarts being particularly common, even when we visited Nuria, at an altitude of 2000M. Also seen at Nuria were Water Pipits and an Alpine Accentor. Griffon Vultures were seen regularly, whilst Kestrels, Buzzards and a single Goshawk were other raptors seen. Crag Martins were the commonest local hirundines, although a large colony of House Martins was present at Nuria.

Black Redstart, Nuria

Water Pipit at Nuria

Griffon Vulture - a Common Sight

There was some heavy rain before and during the early part of our stay. This may have encouraged the appearance of many fruiting bodies of various fungi to appear later on, including a cute little orange one (below) that was seen on one of the walks.

Orange Fungus

Occasionally I see unusual or rarely encountered animal behaviour on my travels. On a 'there and back' walk to a waterfall, we found a suitable bench to sit on and have a drink on the way. Coming back, we were surprised to see a Common Lizard attempting to eat a large, green grasshopper that it had caught, on the bench. For a few minutes it struggled, removing wings and legs but still unable to get the grasshopper in its mouth, let alone eat it. Like a Sparrowhawk, it obviously regarded not letting its prey escape as being more important than leaving the scene as soon as we turned up. Eventually it got the grasshopper in its mouth (image) and disappeared under the bench. On the many occasions that I have seen lizards they have invariably frozen and/or then made a run for safety, so seeing one actually attempting to deal with prey was something new for me. This was the main animal memory that I will take away from a thoroughly enjoyable holiday.

Common Lizard, with Grasshopper Prey