It should be back to business as usual on the blog now, as I have just returned from the Isle of Wight - a week of watching great green bush crickets and wasp spiders - fabulous! But it's back up north now and after I was treated to my first ever whinchats at Beckingham two weeks ago, I was welcomed back on site by my first Beckingham stonechat of the autumn yesterday afternoon as I checked the anti-predator fence over the eastern end of the site. A stunning male, with a beautiful black head and bright orange body plumage was feeding away, giving great views.
Stonechats, as their name suggests are closely related to whinchats, in fact they belong to the same Genus, Saxicola. In the UK they prefer upland or coastal areas of open country for breeding, with grassy and scrubby vegetation including heather and gorse and bracken. They feed almost exclusively on invertebrates, but will also take some seeds and fruit. The species range extends eastwards from the UK, across large areas of Europe and Asia to the eastern coast of Russia. However, unlike the whinchat, our UK breeders are largely sedentary, only making local movements - often from higher to lower altitude for the winter, remaining in the UK for the whole year. Other populations further afield though are highly migratory, moving southwards to Africa for the winter.
Other avian highlights from Beckingham yesterday included another snipe on one of the wetter scrapes and a green woodpecker in the hedgerow that borders the field opposite the Willow Works - keep an eye open for this lovely bird as you walk the visitor trail. There were also a few teal with mallards on site yesterday - the beginning of the winter wildfowl - these should be followed by gadwall, shoveler and wigeon in the next few weeks.
The site was also alive with Odonata yesterday in the sunshine. Large numbers of common darter dragonflies were on the wing, the stunning males sporting their scarlet red colouration. They should be flying for a few weeks yet on sunny, warm days - time to enjoy them before the insect season is over for the winter.
Stunning male stonechat. Ben Hall (rspb-images.com)