Time: from 6:45 a.m.
Weather: dry, sunny, light wind, 10°C to 19°C
I spent almost 4 hours this morning at St. Nicholas Church and the surrounding areas and it proved to be one of the best all round wildlife watching experiences since I have been visiting this site.
The morning started with the Red Foxes returning to form. In my blog post on 23rd May 2020, I speculated that the natal den had been abandoned since I had not seen the vixen and cubs on 2 consecutive visits. This is indeed the case since I rediscovered the cubs and the visiting vixen this morning at another location. Since they have redeemed themselves by reappearing, I have again written a separate dedicated blog post about it here.
Whilst I was watching the Red Foxes (well, waiting for them to show), I heard a male Greenfinch giving its typical wheezy call and then saw it in its butterfly type display flight. In addition, a pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers called regularly and flew between the trees on several occasions.
By the time Red Fox watching had concluded at around 8:30 a.m., the temperature started to warm quickly so I anticipated the possibility of seeing dragonflies, damselflies and butterflies.
However, before that I was entertained to what I assume was a territorial stand-off between 2 male Reeves' Muntjacs in the wooded areas either side of the lower eastern section of the graveyard. For at least 20 minutes, these 2 males “barked” at each other but both refused to emerge from their patch of woodland to challenge their rival (or provide me with a photo opportunity). However, I did manage to record the closest individual with the other audible in the background along with a singing male Blackcap (I have added some photos of Reeve's Muntjacs from previous visits).
As I had hoped, this visit proved to be excellent for dragonflies, damselflies and butterflies.
I saw 3 Four-spotted Chasers and 2 Blue-tailed Damselflies. Both species are new site records for me, bringing my total number of dragonfly and damselfly species recorded to 5.
I saw 3 species of butterfly which I was able to identify: Small Tortoiseshell (1), Holly Blue (3) and Speckled Wood (4). In addition, I saw a skipper species but I was unable to confirm which. These are very small and quick flying butterflies and the individual that I saw refused to settle to allow me to confirm it as Large Skipper, Small Skipper or Essex Skipper. I have recorded the first 2 of these in previous years, sometimes in quite large numbers in the overgrown grassy areas of the graveyard.
With regard to birds, I again saw 2 Swifts, a little away from St. Nicholas Church on this visit and in the direction of St. Nicholas Lane and Pound Lane.
Blackcaps were very evident on this visit and I saw 4 singing males and heard another 6 singing. One male sang very prominently out in the open (enabling me to take some photos) but then he suddenly dived in to cover: he had seen the Sparrowhawk before me. He then decided to be a little more cautious and resumed singing from an unseen position.
Chiffchaffs were far less numerous and I only heard 3 singing males without seeing any of them.
In addition to the pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers at the Red Fox location, I saw another pair in the churchyard plus I heard a Green Woodpecker calling in the graveyard whilst listening to the Reeve’s Muntjacs.
Finally, I saw 2 Grey Squirrels, the first sunning himself on the roof of the church when I arrived on site and the second, or the same individual, later in the morning in the churchyard.
Species recorded during this visit were as follows (heard only records in italics):
Swift
Blackcap
Chiffchaff
Blue Tit
Great Tit
Robin
Wren
Dunnock
Blackbird
Song Thrush
Greenfinch
Goldfinch
House Sparrow
Starling
Sparrowhawk
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Green Woodpecker
Jay
Magpie
Carrion Crow
Woodpigeon
Collared Dove
Herring Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Red Fox
Reeves' Muntjac
Grey Squirrel
Four-spotted Chaser
Blue-tailed Damselfly
Small Tortoiseshell
Holly Blue
Speckled Wood
Skipper sp.
Here are some photos from my visit:
Photo: Small Tortoiseshell
Photo: Speckled Wood
Photo: Blue-tailed Damselfly
Photo: male Blackcap
Photo: Carrion Crow
Photo: Great Spotted Woodpecker
Photo: Bumblebee species
Photo: Bumblebee species
Photo: False Oil Beetle
Photo: Banded Snail species
Photo: Ox-eye Daisies
Site totals to date:
Birds = 46
Mammals = 4
Butterflies = 16
Dragonflies and damselflies = 5
Reptiles = 1
Amphibians = 0
💚🦆 🦉 🌼 🌳💚
Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature
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