Date: 11th October 2024
Time: from 8:45 a.m.
Weather: dry, sunny, light wind, 3°C to 5°C
It was another lovely sunny autumn for my visit this morning although the coldest since last winter with ground frost still evident in areas where the sun hadn’t reached.
During my last visit to the site on 4th October 2024, I recorded 19 bird species which I commented was untypically high for autumn. This morning’s visit was even better with 25 bird species, 2 mammal species and 1 butterfly species recorded.
This included another species added to my 2024 site list, taking the total to 43 species: Mistle Thrush. I recorded Mistle Thrush for the first time at the site last year and this morning’s very brief sighting of a bird in flight in the northern section was only my second.
On my last visit on 4th October 2024, I heard and saw single fly-over Skylarks, only my second
and third records since my first in 2022. Remarkably, I heard another briefly
calling bird flying over the northern section of the site this morning but failed to see it.
Blackcaps now appear to have left the site but, after recording 3 on my last visit, I did see a single Chiffchaff still foraging in bushes near the pond in the northern section of the site
Other bird highlights included a Common Buzzard soaring over the northern section of the site which was occasionally mobbed by Carrion Crows (my fourth successive sighting of this species in as many visits) and a Sparrowhawk flying out of the large oak tree in the central section of the cemetery.
Also in the northern section of the site, I saw 2 Great Spotted Woodpeckers flying together in to a tree, a single Green Woodpecker flying over the rear of the pond plus a single fly-over Pied Wagtail and a single fly-over Greenfinch.
There were still at least 10 Song Thrushes in the northern section of the site and, in addition to the Mistle Thrush, I also heard my first Redwing of the autumn/winter which unfortunately I did not see.
With regard to mammals, I saw 3 Red Foxes: 1 in the wooded clearing at the end of the Larkins Tyres track, 1 running across the northern section of the site towards the pond and 1 crossing the road at the top of Church Hill before moving down Hilly Road and then re-emerging lower down Church Hill. I saw just a single Grey Squirrel on this visit.
Given the even lower temperatures than on my last visit on 4th October 2024, I was not expecting to see any butterflies but, like that last visit, there was still a single Speckled Wood flying in the cemetery immediately adjacent to the church.
Species recorded during this visit were as follows (heard only records in italics):
Skylark
Red Fox
Speckled Wood
Here are some photos
from my visit ….
Photo: Common Buzzard and Carrion Crow
Site totals for 2024 to
date (2023 totals in brackets):
Birds = 43 (47)
Total species list for the site
Birds = 65
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