This photo shows a Comma Butterfly on some blackberries just after the sun had melted the first frosts of Autumn on the 25th

It seems to have been a butterfly week with up to five Speckled Woods on Hopwood on several days and a Red Admiral in our garden.

On Hopwood more Skylarks have been heading South. Bullfinches are enjoying the Autumnal fruits with a party of five feeding on some blackberry bushes.

In the garden the Nuthatches have only returned once during the week. Collared Doves have again topped twenty and the immaculate male Sparrowhawk is back plus at least one immature bird.

Not one but two Nuthatches fed in the garden together on the eighteenth – only the second ever visit to the garden in forty two years! It remains to be seen whether they re-appear tomorrow.

On Hopwood on the seventeenth, in warm sunshine there were Skylarks calling as they flew South over the Golf Course. There were considerable numbers of Coal Tits, some Goldcrests, Reed Buntings and a Sparrowhawk. Two Buzzards were also present. The warmth and sunshine had also brought out five Speckled Wood and two Small Tortoiseshell butterflies which was good to see after a very poor Summer for butterflies.

This is one Red Grouse that has survived the glorious twelfth. The heather has been so purple this year that I couldn’t resist a trip to the Northern Dales this week to obtain a last clip of video before I start work scripting the new Pennine DVD. There were grouse everywhere and it was obvious that they have had a good breeding season with dry, warm weather in the crucial April/May period.

On a recent trip into Rochdale and Oldham we saw from the car two Sparrowhawks, two Buzzards, one Peregrine and one Kestrel not a bad total for a fifteen minute round trip.

The Swallow roost has now broken with only fifty birds present on the second of September, down from up to five thousand the day before. In the garden a female Sparrow Hawk has appeared and made a kill today flying off with its prey before I could come to the rescue!

Whilst looking for Hobbies I came across this young Adder. It is about six weeks old and six inches long and I believe it can still give you a lethal bite despite its age. Apparently August is the month when young Adders emerge and they are on their own as soon as they are born.

The Swallow roost continues to impress at more than two thousand birds per night and no predation yet from any raptors. I would expect their numbers to reduce soon as the movement South starts in earnest in September. I wonder how many will reach South Africa and return next year?

More time has been spent this week looking for Hobbies but all to no avail. I have now given up all hope of including one in this years Pennine DVD so we will have to settle for fourteen species of raptor on it and not fifteen!
It was however pleasing whilst in Macclesfield forest to see that some pairs of Great Crested Grebes still had young.

Hopwood has starred this week with a record of fifty two Mistle Thrushes present on the 26th and a Kingfisher on the 22nd. Both Buzzard and a male Blackcap have also been seen during the week. At the same time there are still two broods of Swallows in the nest at the golf club adding to the more than fifty young that have fledged there this year.

In the garden we have had a record seven Chaffinches on the 24th and some nights a Tawny Owl has been present. On the 24th it was a full moon and we lay in bed watching the clouds scurry across the moon at midnight awaiting the arrival of the Tawny Owl but of course it did not show up that night.

On three good days this week I spent time in the Goyt Valley and on the Staffordshire moorlands looking for Hobbies. Only a female Merlin was seen, which in itself is always a good bird sighting but not what I was looking for! According to the bird press Kestrels are down in number by 53 percent in the last two years due mainly to the two,hard Winters that we have had. Well on one day alone I saw fourteen different Kestrels and as most were young birds they will be a welcome addition to the falling population.

The Swallow roost that I have been watching has now increased to more than a thousand birds as the young birds fledge and join the the existing Swallows that are beginning to head South. I obtained some good video of them against the rising moon on the only night the moon was visible.

On Hopwood on the nineteenth was a record flock of forty Mistle Thrushes feeding on rowan berries. A Whitethroat was still giving alarm calls by a bramble indicating late breeding.