Thursday, 17 October 2024

Visit to St. Nicholas Church and surrounding areas – 17th October 2024

Date: 17th October 2024

Time: from 9 a.m.

Weather: dry, sunny, light wind, 15°C to 16°C

The main purpose of my visit this morning was Red Fox photography in the northern section of the site.

After arriving at my chosen location, I scattered the remains of a chicken carcass plus some dog food and dog biscuits and settled down to wait covered by my bag hide.

After around 20 minutes, I spotted a Red Fox some distance away which very slowly approached the location of the food that I had left but it just walked past! I can not believe that it could not smell or see the food. I failed to get any photos since the views were largely obscured by the dense vegetation.

An hour or so later, I saw the same or maybe a different Red Fox which fortunately did seem to appreciate the food that I had offered. Rather than eating at the location, it preferred to take some away and then return several minutes later to collect some more. During this period of around 30 minutes, I was able to get some photos.














Photo: Red Fox

Photo: Red Fox
















Photo: Red Fox
















Photo: Red Fox
















Photo: Red Fox

Photo: Red Fox

Whilst waiting for any Red Foxes to appear, at least 2 Grey Squirrels were very evident.
















Photo: Grey Squirrel
















Photo: Grey Squirrel

I did not walk the whole site so sightings of birds were limited but I did see at least 2 fly-over and calling Redwings plus several other small thrushes which may have been this species or Song Thrushes. In addition, I heard a calling Green Woodpecker and a calling Great Spotted Woodpecker but failed to see either of them.

Finally, I saw 2 brightly coloured flying butterflies which may have been Small Coppers but the view was too distant to confirm the identification.

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

Blue Tit

Great Tit
Long-tailed Tit
Robin
Dunnock
Wren
Redwing
Blackbird
Starling
Goldfinch
Green Woodpecker
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Jay
Magpie
Carrion Crow
Woodpigeon
Herring Gull

Red Fox

Grey Squirrel

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

Birds = 42 (47)

Mammals = 3 (3)
Butterflies = 17 (23)
Dragonflies and damselflies = 11 (12)
Reptiles = 0 (0)
Amphibians = 0 (0)

Total species list for the site

Birds = 65

Mammals = 7
Butterflies = 25
Dragonflies and damselflies = 14
Reptiles = 1
Amphibians = 0

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Restore and rewild our natural world
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