Visit to St. Nicholas Church and surrounding areas – 9th October 2021

Date: 9th October 2021 

Time: from 8 a.m.

Weather: dry, misty/hazy sunshine, light wind, 8°C to 11°C

It was a very autumnal morning for my visit: cool, mist giving way to hazy sunshine and a heavy dew revealing numerous spider webs.

However, as mentioned previously, it has been a very poor autumn for fruits and berries (blackberries, sloes, hips and haws) compared with the great abundance last year. The almost complete lack of acorns on the oak trees is also apparent and this morning I noticed that the very few of the fallen horse chestnut fruits contained conkers. In contrast, the 2 holly trees in the cemetery now have many red berries, awaiting the imminent arrival in to the UK (and hopefully to St. Nicholas Church cemetery) of Redwings from Scandinavia.  

It continues to be relatively quiet with regard to birds and I only recorded 10 species during my visit.

Woodpeckers were the main highlight with a Great Spotted Woodpecker heard calling and then seen flying over the south west corner of the site plus another heard from the eastern section of the cemetery and Green Woodpeckers seen in both the western and central sections of the cemetery plus another heard from along the track back to Larkins Tyres.

Robins were the most conspicuous species with several singing and calling throughout the site.

Whilst sat in the eastern section of the cemetery, I saw a Red Fox emerge from the boundary bushes and trees and trot away up the path towards the church. A few minutes later, another Red Fox, or maybe the same animal, appeared on the other side before it also disappeared back in to the boundary bushes and trees. It also re-emerged after a few minutes and started walking towards me before turning round and running off.

I saw a single Grey Squirrel running along the fence beside the track back to Larkins Tyres.

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

Blue Tit

Great Tit

Robin

Wren

Green Woodpecker

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Jay

Magpie

Carrion Crow

Woodpigeon

Red Fox

Grey Squirrel

Here are some photos from my visit:

Photo: Red Fox

Photo: Red Fox

Photo: Robin

Photo: Green Woodpecker

Photo: Green Woodpecker

Site totals to date (2021 totals in brackets):

Birds = 53  (42)

Mammals = 6  (5)

Butterflies = 21  (14)

Dragonflies and damselflies = 7  (2)

Reptiles = 1  (0)

Amphibians = 0  (0)

💚🦆 🦉🦋🐝🦊🦡🌼 🌳💚

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