Report from Stapleford Bird Club |
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| As six birders gathered in
the Magog Down car park on Sunday 1 March there was some gloom as to how few
birds we were likely to see in the strong-to-gale force winds blowing. Our
spirits were lifted by three
skylarks on the north down and as we passed the edge of
Youth Wood we added
blackbird,
chaffinch,
wren and
magpie. There were few birds about in Magog Wood, apart
from a couple of
woodpigeon, and the hedges and set-aside land by
Jane’s Piece yielded nothing. Moving south, we encountered robin and dunnock, but as last month, we spent some time looking at the large flocks of gulls in the field to the right and on the arable land of the south down. These flocks were much smaller than previously, and consisted mainly of black-headed, but there were a couple of lesser black-backed and common gulls. Vestey Wood produced no birds at all. On the return walk, however, we had great tit and a fleeting view of a green woodpecker. The best part of the morning came near the end of our walk with large numbers of birds on grazing land just south of Magog Wood. We had wonderful views of 100-plus fieldfare, 200-plus starlings, plus a few redwing and goldfinch. We logged a total of 17 species. Our next walk will be on Saturday 5 April at the “summer” time of 8am. Why not join us? |
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| Updated : 6 June 2008 |