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

Date: 4th August 2021

Time: from 7:45 a.m.

Weather: dry, sunny, light wind, 12°C to 17°C

After the success with Red Fox sightings on my last 2 visits on 29th July 2021 and 1st August 2021, I had another visit this morning, this time taking a container of dog food as bait.

Shortly after arriving at the edge of the church car park and looking down the grassy strip towards St. Nicholas Lane, I had a very distant view of a Red Fox peering out of the hedge right at the bottom. After a couple of minutes or so, it ran out, crossed the grass and disappeared in to the hedge and trees on the other side. The sighting was so brief and distant that it was not possible to determine if this was an adult or one of the well-grown cubs.

Since I had had regular sightings of Red Fox cubs in this area on my last visit, I scattered the dog food in a suitable location and waited for the photo opportunities to arise. However, after much patient waiting, there was no reappearance of any Red Foxes.

The only other sighting of a Red Fox was whilst I was looking over the bramble bushes in the south west corner of the site for butterflies. Again, it was a very brief glimpse of what I think was a well-grown cub running away from me. I think it had spotted me as it approached the area and decided that a quick u-turn was its best option.

Therefore, compared with my last 2 visits, I was not so successful with Red Foxes although I think a contributory factor may have been the arrival of 5 Basildon Council vans at the top of Church Hill complete with maintenance teams who caused a lot of noise and disturbance in mowing and cutting back vegetation in the western section of the cemetery.

Although it continues to be generally quiet, as expected in mid-summer, there were a number of highlights this morning with regard to birds: a single alarm calling Blackcap in the south west corner of the site, a calling Chiffchaff along the access track from Larkins Tyres, a very noisy adult Green Woodpecker with 2 juveniles in the western section of the cemetery, a calling Great Spotted Woodpecker in the wooded area adjacent to Church Hill and 7 fly-over Canada Geese heading in a south easterly direction (maybe to the main lake at Gloucester Park?).

It proved to be a very good visit for butterflies this morning with 8 species recorded, most notably Purple Hairstreak (1 in the area of dense brambles in the south west corner of the site and 1 around an oak tree just to the south of the church car park), Common Blue (a female on bushes just to the south of the church car park), Comma (1 in the area of dense brambles in the south west corner of the site) and Speckled Wood (1 in bushes just to the south of the church car park).

The record of Purple Hairstreak was my first for the site for the year, taking the total to 14 butterfly species.

In addition, the commoner species were relatively abundant: Gatekeeper (c.30), Meadow Brown (c.10), Large White (2) and Small White (2).

The south west corner of the site also produced sightings of 3 female Common Darters.

On my last visit, I recorded what I thought were Hornets. However, having seen what I believe were similar insects this morning, photos have confirmed that these are Hornet Mimic Hoverflies. At almost 2 cm long, the Hornet Mimic Hoverfly is the largest hoverfly species in the UK. As its name suggests, it is an excellent mimic of the Hornet, but is harmless to humans. The Hornet Mimic Hoverfly is mainly orange-yellow on the abdomen with dark bands and a dark brown thorax. It can be distinguished from the Hornet by its much larger eyes, broader body and the lack of a sting. Only a very rare visitor to the UK up to the 1940s, the Hornet Mimic Hoverfly has become more common in southern England in recent years and is still spreading northwards, perhaps as a result of climate change. It is particularly prevalent in urban areas.

In addition to the very brief glimpses of Red Foxes, I also saw 3 Grey Squirrels this morning: 1 in the bushes along the access track from Larkins Tyres, 1 in the trees bordering the grassy strip running down from the church car park to St. Nicholas Lane and 1 again in the south west corner of the site as it ran along a fence to the rear gardens of the houses in Pound Lane.

There are definite signs of autumn on the way now with blackberries (Bramble), sloes (Blackthorn), “conkers” (Horse Chestnut), Crab Apples and Honeysuckle berries all to be seen. Some of the Oak trees also look like they will be producing acorns very soon.

There was a bumper crop of autumn berries and nuts last year although it still remains to be seen what this year will produce. I have read at least 2 articles speculating as to whether it will be a poor crop this year. April was very cold and frosty and May was very wet so it is thought that there were a lot fewer pollinating insects around and this may result in less berries and nuts.

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

Blackcap

Chiffchaff

Blue Tit

Blackbird

Wren

Robin

Green Woodpecker

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Jay

Magpie

Carrion Crow