Wednesday 24 May 2023

Visit to St. Nicholas Church and surrounding areas – 24th May 2023

Date: 24th May 2023

Time: from 6:15 a.m.

Weather: dry, sunny, light wind, 9°C to 12°C

After my visits on 11th May 202316th May 2023 and 20th May 2023, I again visited the same location this morning to watch and photograph the Red Fox vixen and her cubs.

As on my previous visits, I scattered some dog food and dog biscuits at the front of the hedge and then settled down to wait off to the side.

I waited for around an hour and a half but there was a complete Red Fox “no show”. No vixen. No cubs. This was very disappointing given that I had got up at 5 a.m. I had put the effort in but this was not reciprocated!

However, during my visit, I still added 2 new records for 2023 for the site: Swift (a single bird heard “screaming” overhead but unseen since I was covered by my bag hide waiting for Red Foxes!) and Wall (seen around the church and only my second site record since my first in 2020).

I managed to get a very poor record shot of the Wall on my mobile phone.
















I didn’t walk around the rest of the site and keep a complete record list but whilst waiting for the Red Foxes, I again saw a banded snail species and a Magpie, both of which I was able to photograph from my bag hide.















Photo: Banded snail species















Photo: Magpie

Photo: Magpie

In addition, I again saw the singing male Common Whitethroat in the bushes next to Larkins Tyres which I was able to photograph.

Photo: male Common Whitethroat

Photo: male Common Whitethroat

I also heard 2 singing male Chiffchaffs and 3 singing male Blackcaps and saw a Great Spotted Woodpecker at the top of a tree adjacent to Church Hill.

The whole site is now very green and there are plenty of wild flowers including Ox-eye Daisies which have recently emerged.



























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

Swift
Common Whitethroat
Blackcap
Chiffchaff
Great Spotted Woodpecker

Wall

Site totals for 2023 to date (2022 totals in brackets):


Birds = 40  (45)
Mammals = 3  (5)
Butterflies = 3  (17)  
Dragonflies and damselflies = 0  (7)
Reptiles = 0  (0)
Amphibians = 0  (0)

Total species list for the site:

Birds = 62
Mammals = 7
Butterflies = 23
Dragonflies and damselflies = 9
Reptiles = 1
Amphibians = 0

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