Date: 14th March 2022
Time: from
7 a.m.
Weather: dry,
sunny, light wind, 5°C to 8°C
This
was my earliest start to a visit this year and as spring approaches and with the
clocks going forward at the end of the month, 7 a.m. will soon be a late start.
It was an excellent visit this morning with another 2 additions to my 2022 list for the site: Redwing and Grey Heron.
I saw a single Redwing feeding in the rough grass field behind Larkins Tyres. Having not seen either Redwing or Fieldfare earlier in the winter, I think I had given up on seeing either of these wintering thrushes during the first few months of 2022 so a belated record of the former is a bonus.
I saw a Grey Heron flying over the central section of the cemetery in a westerly direction. I have seen this species before but only very occasionally, especially compared with the number of times that I have seen it from my flat window.
The other main highlight of my visit was hearing and seeing the first Chiffchaffs of the spring. As I arrived at the site via the track from Larkins Tyres, I heard a distant singing Chiffchaff in the wooded area towards Church Hill or the eastern section of the cemetery.
Later in my visit, I heard another distant singing Chiffchaff from my watchpoint in the north of the site. Eventually, after much scanning with my binoculars, I located the bird but it was far too distant to photograph.
This was not my first record of Chiffchaff for the year at this site since I saw a wintering individual on 17th January 2022 in the cemetery. Nonetheless, it was very welcome to hear and see Chiffchaffs back for their summer residence.
So, I saw both Chiffchaff and Redwing, the former a summer visitor and the latter a winter visitor. We are clearly in that transitional period when summer visitors are arriving and winter visitors are departing.
Other notable records this morning were Greenfinch (a calling male heard from my watchpoint in the north of the site), Jackdaw (2 seen flying over the north of the site), Great Spotted Woodpecker (a very active and excitedly calling male and female seen in the trees around the church, the car park and at the top of Church Hill) and Green Woodpecker (1 heard calling and then seen in the eastern section of the cemetery).
With regard to
mammals, I saw a Red Fox very briefly running along the hedge line bordering
the section of the cemetery immediately surrounding the church and presumably
the same individual much later eating something (I think a bird) in the same area. It seemed to
be far more intent on eating than my presence and it enabled a close approach
to photograph. For some reason, unexplained given the dry and sunny weather, this Red Fox was very wet
I saw 3 Grey Squirrels this morning: 1 in trees in the south west corner of the site, 1 in the eastern section of the cemetery and 1 in the large oak tree from my watchpoint in the north of the site.
Species
recorded during this visit were as follows (heard only records in italics):
💚🦆 🦉🦋🐝🦊🦡🌼 🌳💚
Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature
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