Date: 22nd May 2022
Time: from 5:30 a.m.
Weather: dry, sunny, light wind, 11°C to 14°C
The main purpose of my visit this morning to the area surrounding St. Nicholas Church was to watch and photograph the local Red Foxes.
As on my previous visits
dedicated to Red Fox photography on 3rd March 2022 and 7th April 2022, I didn’t just take
my binoculars and camera but additionally the
contents of a can of dog food and some dog biscuits and peanuts. Unfortunately,
I completely forgot the remains of a chicken carcass so a full Red Fox “breakfast” was
not on offer on this occasion 😀.
I accessed the site via the track from Larkins Tyres and then took the
short track through the trees to my usual watchpoint overlooking the rough
grass field bordered by scrub, hedges and trees.
I
climbed over the fence and walked across the field to the large oak tree where
I left the food for the Red Foxes. I then returned to my watchpoint
and made the first use of my newly purchased Walkstool as I waited for
the Red Foxes to appear.
I waited …. and waited
…. and waited …. and finally gave up after 2 hours. Clearly the absence of a
chicken carcass as on my previous 2 visits made my offering far less attractive
😀.
However,
I did see a Red Fox almost immediately after leaving home at the
junction of Church Road and Basildon Road. When it spotted me, it just sat down
in the road and looked in my direction. If it knew that I was carrying a “breakfast”, it
should have followed me 😀.
The
other mammal that I saw was a Reeves’ Muntjac at the end of the track to
Larkins Tyres as I returned home.
With
regard to birds, I did not walk around the whole site and my records solely
relate to walking to and from the Red Fox watchpoint and at the
watchpoint itself.
At
the Red Fox watchpoint, I heard at least 3 singing male Blackcaps
plus I had good but very distant views of another singing male Blackcap
that repeatedly returned to the same song post at the top of one of the hedges.
In addition, I heard 2 very distant singing male Chiffchaffs and a
calling Stock Dove (only my second site
record after the first during my visit on 1st May 2022) and saw both a fly-over Green Woodpecker and
a fly-over Great Spotted Woodpecker.
After seeing the Reeves’ Muntjac, the area around Larkins Tyres
proved to be very productive. In the scrub area behind Larkins Tyres, I saw a Common
Buzzard initially on the ground and then in flight plus another male Blackcap
and a Common Whitethroat, the latter continually singing and calling.
In the scrub immediately adjacent to the track by Larkins Tyres, I had several
sightings of a male and female Common Whitethroat, both carrying food
presumably to a nest site. This is exactly the same location where I saw a Common
Whitethroat in both April of this year and last year. The same area also
produced sightings of 2 more male Blackcaps.
Species recorded during this visit were as follows
(heard only records in italics):
Site totals to date (2022 totals in brackets):
💚🦆 🦉🦋🐝🦊🦡🌼 🌳💚
Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature
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