SS15 wildlife watching: Visit to St. Nicholas Church and surrounding areas

Date: 4th October 2024

Time: from 9 a.m.

Weather: dry, sunny, light wind, 8°C to 10°C

I had an exceptionally good visit on a lovely sunny autumn morning with 19 bird species (untypically high for autumn), 3 mammal species and 1 butterfly species recorded.

This included 2 bird species added to my 2024 site list, taking the total to 42 species: Skylark and Goldcrest.

I had only ever recorded Skylark once before back in 2022 but this morning I first heard a briefly calling bird over the northern section of the site and later I heard and then saw a single bird flying very high over the church in a southerly direction.

My first record of Goldcrest for the year was long overdue and I heard a briefly singing male in the far corner of the northern section of the site.

Unlike my last visit, I did not hear or see any Blackcaps but I did have 3 records of Chiffchaff: a briefly singing but unseen male in the northern section of the site, a single calling bird seen foraging in a tree in the western section of the cemetery and another calling but unseen bird in bushes near the church.

Other bird highlights included Common Buzzard which I inadvertently disturbed from trees near the pond in the northern section of the site before seeing presumably the same bird later (my third successive sighting of this species in as many visits), a Great Spotted Woodpecker (a single bird heard calling in the northern section of the site and then a single bird seen flying across the western section of the cemetery) and Green Woodpecker (a single bird heard calling in the northern section of the site and then a single bird seen flying across the western section of the cemetery).

There were also at least 10 Blackbirds and 10 Song Thrushes in the northern section of the site, all very flighty and possibly newly arrived autumn immigrants from Europe.

Finally, with regard to birds, I thought I heard a distantly calling Ring-necked Parakeet whilst I was walking around the northern section of the site. This is a species that I recorded at the site in 2022 so it would not be totally out of the question.

I also had a very good visit with regard to mammals with 4 sightings of Red Fox although there may have been some duplication (a single animal seen in the northern section of the site, 2 seen in the wooded clearing at the end of the Larkins Tyres track and another seen in the central section of the cemetery), Reeves’ Muntjac (a single animal seen in the northern section of the site and another or the same later heard “barking”) and Grey Squirrel (7 seen at various locations across the site).

Given the low temperatures and the fact that we are now in October, I was not expecting to see any butterflies but I did see 2 Speckled Woods flying in the cemetery immediately adjacent to the church with both coming back to the same gravestone to bask in what ever warmth the sun was providing.

Autumn is a good time for fungi. I am no expert but the Seek app on my phone identified, hopefully correctly, Hare's Foot Inkcap and Yellow Fieldcap.

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

Skylark

Chiffchaff

Goldcrest

Blue Tit

Great Tit

Long-tailed Tit

Robin

Dunnock

Wren

Blackbird

Song Thrush