SS15 wildlife watching: Visit to St. Nicholas Church and surrounding areas

Monday, 23 November 2020

Visit to St. Nicholas Church and surrounding areas – 23rd November 2020

Date: 23rd November 2020

Time: from 8:30 a.m.

Weather: dry, sunny, light wind, 2°C to 7°C

It was definitely a wintery start this morning with a temperature of just 2°C and with frost on the ground until the brilliant sunshine got to work.

I accessed the site via the track from Larkins Tyres and immediately got off to an excellent start with a Reeves’ Muntjac in the field to the north closely followed by a Red Fox slowly walking across the Laindon Park School playing field to the north.

I saw a further 2 Red Foxes during my visit: the first which provided 3 brief sightings in the area behind the church and the second on my way home and seen distantly in the field to the north of the track back to Larkins Tyres. The Red Fox behind the church did enable me to get 2 photos: an all too frequent "bum shot" but also a more acceptable pose, albeit slightly soft and blurry.

Photo: the classic Red Fox "bum shot"

Photo: Red Fox

Grey Squirrels have been very evident recently, often with up to 6 animals seen on a single visit, but this morning I only had a very brief sighting of an individual in the south west corner of the site.

With regard to birds, the most notable records were a distant view of a female Chaffinch in the field to the north of the site and a single Collared Dove in the trees along the track back to Larkins Tyres. Although it is a common bird in the UK and there is plenty of suitable habitat around the site for the species, I have rarely seen Chaffinch. During the spring and early summer, I regularly saw a pair of Collared Doves on or close to the telegraph pole and wires at the top of Church Hill but today’s sighting was the first for several months.

I was able to watch a female Great Spotted Woodpecker for several minutes as it worked its way through the trees at the rear of the church and I also heard a Green Woodpecker in the same area.

Blue Tits, Great Tits and Long-tailed Tits were again conspicuous today and I saw at least 4 Goldcrests in the wooded area along the track from Larkins Tyres.

As on my last visit, a small hawthorn bush behind the church hosted up to 10 Blackbirds which visited regularly to gorge on the red berries.

Finally, I saw a noisy group of around 20 Magpies in the western area of the cemetery.

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