Saturday, 4 October 2025

Record from my flat - Common Buzzard

The sightings of Common Buzzard keep on coming!

My sightings are usually from mid-morning onwards in sunny weather when the birds take advantage of thermals to enable soaring.

However, my sighting this morning at 7:25 a.m. was very untypical being so early in the morning and in grey and very windy weather. I had an extremely brief view this time of a bird that flew past undoubtedly wind-assisted!

Sightings of Common Buzzard have been much lower in the last few years after a peak of activity during 2022 but there has been a significant and welcome increase in sightings recently following a scarcity during the first half of 2025.

Whilst I have no firm evidence, it seems quite likely that a pair of Common Buzzards bred locally this year with some of these birds that I am now seeing being juveniles.

Summary of Common Buzzard records during the last 5 years:

2021: 11 dates involving 13 birds

2022: 26 dates involving 38 birds

2023: 8 dates involving 8 birds

2024: 3 dates involving 3 birds

2025: 14 dates involving 22 birds

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Thursday, 2 October 2025

Visit to St. Nicholas Church and surrounding areas – 2nd October 2025

Date: 2nd October 2025

Time: from 10:30 a.m.

Weather: dry, sunny/cloudy, light wind, 14°C to 17°C

I had a long overdue visit to the site this morning when I was able to add another species to my 2025 site list taking the total to 47 speciesFirecrest.

I initially heard a calling Firecrest in the wooded area immediately before the track back down to where I live and then had very good views, although the bird was very active and the light was poor preventing any photos.

This is only my second record of Firecrest for the site, the first being on 12th April 2023.

The other highlights with regard to birds during my visit were as follows:

Common Buzzard: 1 heard “mewing” in the northern section of the site and then seen briefly flying beyond the trees

Chiffchaff: 3 calling birds (northern section of the site, central section of the cemetery and around the church)

Goldcrest: 1 heard calling in the wooded area adjacent to the track down to the A127 (the location of my first Firecrest record)

Green Woodpecker: 1 heard calling at the end of the access track from Larkins Tyres

Great Spotted Woodpecker: 1 heard calling in the northern section of the site

Song Thrush and Blackbird: at least 5 of each species and possibly newly arrived autumn immigrants

Surprisingly, there was a reminder that summer isn’t quite over yet with sightings of a single Wall in the central section of the cemetery and 2 more in the immediate vicinity of the church.
















Photo: Wall

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

Firecrest

Goldcrest
Chiffchaff
Blue Tit
Great Tit
Long-tailed Tit
Robin
Dunnock
Blackbird
Song Thrush
Starling
Green Woodpecker
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Jay
Magpie
Carrion Crow
Woodpigeon
Herring Gull

Grey Squirrel

Wall

Site totals for 2025 to date (2024 totals in brackets):  

Birds = 47 (49)

Mammals = 4 (3)
Butterflies = 23 (17)
Dragonflies and damselflies = 11 (11)
Reptiles = 0 (0)
Amphibians = 0 (0) 

Total species list for the site 

Birds = 69

Mammals = 8
Butterflies = 26
Dragonflies and damselflies = 14
Reptiles = 1
Amphibians = 0

Love nature .... act now

Restore and rewild our natural world
Please help save and enhance our laws that protect our environment and wildlife

💚🦆 🦉🦋🐝🦊🦡🌼 🌳💚
Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature