UKC

Saw a blackcap yesterday morning, first time I’ve seen an overwintering one. Mega view of male sparrowhawk as well. Today: lots of redwings, kestrel and sparrowhawk. Geese numbers railing off - must have ended up at the wintering quarters. Phone photos of Elnup Woods near me, once riddled with pits and mining stuff. Autumn colours fading now, been good whilst it lasted. Could do with some nicer weather to get the big camera out. 

My garden this morning: Robin, Sparrows, Dunnocks, Blue Tits, Great Tits and a magpie.

Dog walk yesterday: Kingfisher, Sparrowhawk, Crows, Rooks, Tits, Nuthatch, and lots of unidentified bird song.

Not bad for inner city Bristol.

I just love this time of year, but as you say it's drawing to a close now.

Edit: If you're an Android user then download the BirdNET app, it's like Shazam for bird song. I use it all the time now.

That’s a good haul.

During lockdown 1 I got really into wildlife photography and got to know some regular walkers who are now my friends, always chatting about roe deer and whatnot.  Unknown to them, I’ve made them each a calendar for Xmas, as a momento.

A tip for newbies: keep looking upwards. Surprising what you can see once you get good enough, especially birds of prey.

Male or female. I think there is an order of magnitude difference between the overwintering number of each, although I think climate change is also increasing the number that stay.

Male. Given the amount of walking I do around blackcap habitats (good numbers in summer), I’m surprised I’ve never seen an overwintering one before. 
Lots of winter thrushes this year. 

Could also be one of ours! In some regions of Germany, around a third of blackcaps now migrate NW and overwinter in the usually frost free coastal regions of the southern UK. Slightly lower survival rate, but if they make it, they tend to beat the birds spending winter in Spain and North Africa by a crucial few days to occupy better territories. This apparently only started in the second half of last century, but it is amazing how quick a trait providing even a minor reproductive advantage becomes fixed in a population!

CB

Had a grand Saturday round Portmahomack, after heading to the beach and along the estuary looking for waterfowl and waders got treated to an hour of 8 or so bottlenose dolphins feeding just offshore. Looked like salmon they were wrestling with. Later on round a fire outside the house watched huge skeins overhead and had a tawny owl calling for a while. 

A week in Morar - saw no eagles, no otters, no seals or dolphins. 

We saw one bird of prey, a dead starfish, some hermit crabs and a large shrimp.

Lots of gulls, crows and tits too.

I’ve started seeing a fair few woodcock in the big wood now, which are always lovely to see. 

And if you prefer looking to the floor when out and about, shroomify is a great app for fungus identification.

And in response to the OP, I've  never seen a black cap but I did see a wren in my bird bath yesterday. One of my favourite little birds and considering they are supposed to be common, I only see one every 6 months or so. It was a real treat.

Even more odd is that apparently hybridisation between those that migrate to UK and those that migrate to Med fails due to the offspring being drawn to mid point (Biscay). Only source is Wikipedia, so I'm looking for more info on the heritable migration instinct.

Earlier this year we had a whole family of wrens (about 6 or 7) "churring" at one of our cats. Maybe it was the parents showing their brood things to avoid.

The cat was just sitting there hoping that one of them made a false move.

Good shout, especially right now.

Quite often the loudest, most melodious bird in urban environments.

We have a pair of blackcaps currently visiting as we have windafall apples on the floor, they love them.

Also got some beautiful Goldfinches flitting rom bush to bush and onto the sunflower heart table.

Yes, that could be a speciation process seen live. If this holds true, speciation could be much faster than previously thought. The only other example iI know of that seems even faster is currently being observed in the Rhineland, where salamanders leading the old fashioned life of switching between damp forests and streams have almost completely stopped interbreeding with a population staying year round in the forest craters left by a botched bombing raid on Cologne, and just wait for water levels to rise and fall with the seasons!

CB

What's the distribution of the birds and how would I attract them? Im in semi rural Notts.

The birds I see, although they are very quiet atm, blackbirds, sparrow, dunnock, blue/coal/great tits, occasional gold/green finch, pigeon, robin, collared dove, very occasional thrush/wren, occasional long tailed tit. Starlings in spring.

Sparrow hawk, once per year.

Wrens: very common due to the fact they live in any habitat. And IIRC, their call is unidirectional - very loud when they face you, quiet when they turn away.

Check this, Wren Day

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wren_Day

Sorry, I meant distribution of black caps?

We only hava a pair, it started with just the male then the female about a week later. We didn't aim to attract blackcaps in particular, we just put out plenty of different feeds on tables and in feeders. 

In fact, we didn't even realise they were blackcaps at first, as they mixed with the sparrows and dunnocks.

Rotting windfalls was the main draw I think, they are going for them again this year.

Saw a redwing in the garden other day, even posed long enough to get the binoculars on it. 

Half the mechanism is on timing. Those in different over wintering sites arrive at different times in Spring so pairing is already done.

What I found more odd is that the offspring of any hybrid would not migrate correctly. For one, I hadn't appreciate that migration is that complex as to have destination rather than direction - I thought is was mostly external factors driving the direction, so depending on conditions you could go West to UK coast of South to Med, the choice is almost random, the chaotic system has two outcomes. Once you start in one direction your compelled by external factors to the ultimate destination.

I've just ordered Bird Migration by Ian Newton.

Did you find any research of Blackcap migration.  I did, can post links  if you want?

Saw a blackcap for the first time in our garden this weekend gone. And also, much to my surprise, a lesser spotted Woodpecker. stayed around for a couple of days. 

Walking the hound yesterday teatime I enjoyed roughly 5 minutes in the company of a Kingfisher. It was flitting from side to side over a small pond and dipped once into the water before flying upstream. This was on the river Trym (actually, it's Hazel Brook but I'm splitting hairs) walking down Blaise Castle Gorge

https://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crags/blaise_castle_gorge-45#maps 

I do love a kingisher.