Evening visit to St. Nicholas Church and surrounding areas – 30th August 2020

Date: 30th August 2020

Time: from 7:45 p.m.

Weather: dry, cloudy, dark, 14°C

This was my first evening visit since 17th August 2020 and, given that the summer solstice was over 2 months ago, with earlier and earlier sunsets, I am arriving on site much earlier in the evening now.

This proved to be the most successful evening visit for many weeks with a lot of Red Fox activity and extended views of 2 Badgers.

The visit got off to a good start: as I passed Laindon Park School before walking up Church Hill, I saw my first Red Fox sat on the playing field opposite.

At the top of Church Hill, there was a beautiful sunset in the west and an apparently large and almost full Moon. However, the next full Moon does not occur until 2nd September 2020: this was a waxing gibbous Moon.

When I arrived at the site, I scattered some chopped apple, peanuts and dog biscuits at the usual location where the Badgers emerge.

Before settling down to wait for the Badgers, I found a location where I could watch the grassy strip that runs parallel to Church Hill down to St. Nicholas Lane, a normally reliable area to see Red Foxes. 

At 8:05 p.m., I saw a Red Fox cross Church Hill but shortly afterwards I saw 4 Red Fox cubs in the grassy strip running, chasing and play fighting. After a few minutes, 2 ran off and did not return but the remaining 2 continued to be very active for over 5 minutes.

This is only the second time that I have seen all 4 cubs together and it is very encouraging that all of them have survived from early May 2020 when I first found them given the high mortality rate of Red Fox cubs. However, the period when cubs become fully independent and disperse from their natal area is fast approaching and this is when many more deaths occur, primarily as road traffic casualties.

At 8:25 p.m. and after the interaction between the cubs had ended, a Red Fox cub appeared in the church car park and slowly walked around the perimeter.

It was now almost dark so I moved to my location to wait for a Badger to emerge. The first sighting occurred very quickly at 8:30 p.m. when a Badger appeared at the gap in the hedgeline. However, this sighting and further sightings at 8:45 p.m. and 8:55 p.m. were very brief and probably 2 minutes each at most.

However, a Badger again appeared at 9:15 p.m. and slowly emerged to eat the trail of food that I had left. After about 5 minutes, another Badger emerged and they both fed together for a further 5 minutes or so before one of them returned to the hedge. The remaining individual continued to forage for what was left of any food for another 5 minutes before it also returned to the hedge. At one point during this 15 minute period, there was some noisy shrieking and  “geckering” of Red Fox cubs which I assumed were in the vicinity of the church car park.

This was the first time that I had seen more than a single Badger for many weeks.

After watching the Badgers, I walked down to the church car park and scanned the grassy strip with my torch and picked up the eye shine of what turned out to be a Red Fox .... given the pointy ears also emerging from the long grass! Eye shine is the visible effect of the tapetum lucidum which occurs in many nocturnal mammals but it is absent in diurnal mammals including primates and ourselves as humans.

Shortly after this, I saw a Red Fox crossing Church Hill which I assume was the same individual that had moved from the grassy strip, through the wooded area and out in to the road.

As I walked home, I also scanned Laindon Park School playing field with my torch and I again picked up the eye shine of a Red Fox.

With regard to birds, I heard several Robins and a Magpie alarm calling plus 6 Herring Gulls flew over before it went dark.

Species recorded during this visit were as follows (heard only records in italics):

Badger

Red Fox

Robin

Magpie

Herring Gull

Site totals to date

Birds = 49

Mammals = 6

Butterflies = 20

Dragonflies and damselflies = 6

Reptiles = 1

Amphibians = 0

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Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature