Date: 31st March 2021
Time: from 7:45 a.m.
Weather: dry, sunny, light wind, 8°C to
16°C
After my last visit on 19th March 2021 which
proved to rather quiet and uneventful, this
morning was significantly better.
The summer warbler festival is well
underway, as evidenced by the 3 singing male Chiffchaffs and 4 singing male Blackcaps around my St. Nicholas Church local patch site yesterday, and this was
further confirmed by the conspicuous presence of both species on the reserve this
morning.
During my visit this morning, I added 4
species to my site list for the year, bringing the total to 30 bird species. Chiffchaff
and Blackcap were the most notable.
I recorded at least 9 singing male Chiffchaffs with 4 singles actually seen: 1 along the main track from the Spanish Steps to the storage shed, 1 in the area around the storage shed, 1 along the track between the storage shed and the Eastfield Road entrance and 1 in the area where the boardwalks start. Unlike those at my St. Nicholas Church local patch site, the Chiffchaffs this morning were singing prominently from treetops enabling me to get some photos.
Chiffchaffs have an instantly recognisable onomatopoeic and metronomic song ….
I saw
3 singing male Blackcaps: 1 along the main track from the Spanish Steps to the storage shed, 1
along the track between the storage shed and the Eastfield Road entrance and 1 behind
the boardwalk at Meadow Pond.
The
other 2 additions to my site list for the year were a single fly-over Greylag
Goose and 2 fly-over Black-headed Gulls, both of the latter in full
summer plumage.
The
other bird highlights were an extremely noisy calling Green Woodpecker
in the tall trees between the
storage shed and the Eastfield Road entrance, 6 fly-over Mallards (3
single males and a group of 2 males and a female) and 7 fly-over Canada
Geese.
In addition to the 4
additions to my bird site list for the year, I also recorded my first butterfly
species with 2 Peacocks seen (1 basking on the southern boardwalk and
the other flying around the vegetation adjacent to the track to Willow Pond).
I saw 6 Grey Squirrels during
my visit: 2 in the wooded area around Fox Pond, 1 in the wooded area between
the boardwalk and Puckles Pond and 3 together in the wooded area between
Puckles Pond and the storage shed.
Finally, there were several bumblebees
on the wing (species unknown) plus at least 10 bee-flies (possibly Dark-edged Bee-flies) in the Thorny Wood area.
Species recorded during this visit
were as follows (heard only records in italics):
Grey Squirrel
Peacock
Here are some photos from my
visit:
Photo: male Chiffchaff
Photo: male Chiffchaff
Photo: male Chiffchaff
Photo: male Chiffchaff
Photo: Robin
Photo: Robin
Photo: Long-tailed Tit
Photo: Carrion Crows
Photo: Carrion Crow
Photo: Magpie
Photo: Magpie
Photo: Bee-fly species
Site totals to date (2021 totals in brackets):
Mammals = 2 (1)
Butterflies = 18 (1)
Dragonflies and damselflies = 9 (0)
Reptiles = 1 (0)
Amphibians = 0 (0)
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