Wednesday, 3 January 2024

Visit to St. Nicholas Church and surrounding areas – 3rd January 2024

Date: 3rd January 2024

Time: from 10 a.m.

Weather: dry, sunny/cloudy, moderate wind, 10°C to 11°C

This was my first visit to the site for 2024 and it was generally very quiet. However, I did have a few notable sightings.

Firstly, I saw a single Fieldfare fly in and perch in a tree in the northern section of the site. This is a species that I record very rarely so to see another bird just a few days after my last visit on 29th December 2023 and on my first visit of the new year was especially pleasing. I did manage to get a distant and heavily cropped record shot of this morning’s bird.

Photo: Fieldfare

Also in the northern section of the site, I saw 3 Greenfinches, a species that I record more frequently in spring and summer, and I heard a calling Green Woodpecker. I saw a Green Woodpecker at the bottom of Hilly Road as it flew across the rough grass area adjacent to St. Nicholas Lane and I heard an excitedly calling Great Spotted Woodpecker in the wooded area bordering the eastern section of the cemetery.

My first mammal record for the site for 2024 was a single Reeves’ Muntjac which I saw briefly in the far northern area.

Finally, there was already a first sign of spring although unfortunately Santa was still hanging around!






























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

Blue Tit

Great Tit
Long-tailed Tit
Robin
Fieldfare
Song Thrush
Blackbird
Dunnock
Greenfinch
Green Woodpecker
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Magpie
Carrion Crow
Woodpigeon
Herring Gull

Reeves’ Muntjac

Site totals for 2024 to date (2023 totals in brackets):

Birds = 15 (47)
Mammals = 1 (3)
Butterflies = 0 (23)
Dragonflies and damselflies = 0 (12)
Reptiles = 0 (0)
Amphibians = 0 (0)

Total species list for the site:


Birds = 65
Mammals = 7
Butterflies = 25
Dragonflies and damselflies = 13
Reptiles = 1
Amphibians = 0

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