Date: 13th April 2025
Time: from 8 a.m.
Weather: dry, sunny, moderate wind, 12°C to 13°C
The Big County Birdwatch 2025 event organised by Essex Birdwatching Society was
continuing for its third day but I was unable to attend any of the programmed walks
due to the late start times of Sunday buses.
Instead, I visited my local patch and was rewarded with another 2 bird species for my site list for 2025 taking it to 39 species: Lesser Whitethroat and Willow Warbler (heard only). Both species were also new additions to my UK list for 2025 plus they were tentatively predicted following my last visit to the site on 6th April 2025.
I heard a singing male Willow Warbler as soon as I started walking along the access track from Larkins Tyres but, whilst the bird was evidently close, I failed to see it. I heard another singing male Willow Warbler in the northern section of the site but this was much more distant and again I failed to see it.
I had much more luck with a singing male Lesser Whitethroat which I first heard in the paddock in the northern section of the site and then eventually saw several times as it flew over the paddock fence and between various bushes.
The other highlights
during my visit were as follows:
Chiffchaff: at least 9 singing males and another calling bird across the site (2 seen)
Blackcap: at least 10 singing males across the site (1 seen)
Grey Heron: 1 seen flying over the northern section of the site
Black-headed Gull: 2 seen flying over the northern section of the site and 1 seen flying over the southern section of the site (this is a much less regular gull species than Herring Gull and Lesser Black-backed Gull)
Green Woodpecker: 1 heard calling in the northern section of the site
With regard to mammals, I saw a single Red Fox in the paddock in the northern section of the site.
Species recorded during this visit were as follows (heard only records in italics):
Lesser Whitethroat
Red Fox
Here are some photos
from my visit ….
Photo: Song Thrush
Site totals for 2025 to
date (2024 totals in brackets):
Birds = 39 (49)
Total species list for the site
Birds = 69
Love nature .... act now
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