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

Date: 25th March 2021

Time: from 7 a.m.

Weather: dry, sunny, light/moderate wind, 4°C to 9°C

The evening “eyestrain specials” looking for nocturnal wildlife have recommenced and now so have the “early morning specials”.

Starting at 7 a.m., this was my earliest visit to the site this year and my start time will become earlier still after the clocks go forward this coming Saturday/Sunday night.

My early start this morning was prompted by last night’s weather forecast which suggested it would be a bright and sunny morning and so it proved to be.

It also turned out to be my best site visit this year so far in terms of the species list recorded …. 25 bird species and 3 mammal species ….and there were many highlights.

I accessed the site as usual via the track from Larkins Tyres and then, on reaching the clearing, I took the short track through the woodland to the fencing that provides a watchpoint to scan the field and the trees, hedges and scrub bordering it.

From here, I saw 2 Mallards (a male and a female) flying rapidly over the northern part of the site. This record was a new addition to my site list for the year, bringing the total to 34 bird species.

Almost as soon as I arrived at the watchpoint, I heard a calling Pheasant and then saw a male emerge from the scrub and slowly cross the field in front of me. This is possibly the same bird that I saw on 9th March 2021 in the same area.

From this location, I also heard an almost continually singing male Chiffchaff close by which I saw on 2 separate occasions and I heard another singing very distantly to the north. I heard a third singing bird in the woodland adjacent to Church Hill as I walked home.

Success with Chiffchaffs was equaled by success with Blackcaps, the other common summer visiting warbler to the site. On my visit on 26th February 2021, I had my first Blackcap record of the year for the site, albeit a “heard only” record of a singing male. This morning, I heard and then eventually saw a singing male in the extreme south west of the site where it borders Pound Lane (where I heard my first bird of the year) and I saw another silently foraging in the hedges at the edge of the eastern section of the cemetery.

The watchpoint overlooking the field and the trees, hedges and scrub produced several other sightings including a soaring Common Buzzard (albeit very distantly to the north west), 4 Green Woodpeckers flying through (2 singles and a pair together), a calling and displaying male Greenfinch and 4 individual fly-over Lesser Black-backed Gulls.

I heard another extremely noisy and persistently calling Green Woodpecker in the wooded area at the eastern end of the cemetery and I had a brief sighting of this bird. There was also another calling Green Woodpecker in the woodland adjacent to Church Hill as I walked home.

Great Spotted Woodpeckers have been far less conspicuous on my recent visits and this morning was no different with a briefly calling bird in the area between the watchpoint and the cemetery. At the watchpoint, I also heard what I think was this species tapping away in the tree canopy.

With regard to mammals, I had an extremely brief sighting of a Red Fox from the watchpoint when one emerged from the hedges and scrub on the far right side before promptly turning back and disappearing from view.

In the central section of the cemetery, I had an extremely close view of a Reeves’ Muntjac as it crossed slowly from one side to the other.

During this visit, I saw 4 Grey Squirrels: 1 feeding and then dozing in the sunshine in the trees at the edge of the field and 4 together in the eastern section of the cemetery, initially on the ground and out in the open before they scampered up the nearest trees.

Finally, I saw 5 to 10 Bumblebees, most of which I think were either White-tailed Bumblebees or Buff-tailed Bumblebees, 2 of the commonest and earliest species to emerge in spring.

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

Blackcap

Chiffchaff

Blue Tit

Great Tit

Long-tailed Tit

Robin

Wren

Dunnock

Blackbird

Song Thrush

Greenfinch