On the sightings board: Chaffinch 65 , blackbird 8, reed bunting 7, linnet 13, jay 1, great spotted woodpecker 3, redwing 6, fieldfare 2.
and a sparrow hawk in Pony Wood and redwing by the FAUNA stones
Month: January 2023
Remains of the fallen horse chestnut
The Wednesday volunteers joined, by Andy Lee worked on the fallen tree in Pony Wood on Wednesday. The trunk and larger branches were sawn up and left in situ, the smaller branches were taken into the wood to make a hedge of brash: although dead wood is good spread around a woodland to rot down naturally, too much can cover ground flora, encouraging perhaps brambles to grow over it to shade out lower plants. It can also cause a problem for access for management in the future. Stacking brash either in heaps or rows is beneficial to small mammals, birds, insects etc, but a row or hedge can create corridors through the wood to connect to outside boundaries etc. Eventually they compost down with mosses, lichens and fungi to increase nutrients to the woodland floor.
Bird sightings on the board
Feeding Station
chaffinch 20+, blackbird 4, robin 4, great tit 2, blue tit 2, dunnnock 2, reed bunting 12, wood pigeon 4, pheasant 1,
Pony Wood
jay 1, redwing 6, mistle thrush 1, wren 1 goldfinch 6,
Overflying
pinkfoot 40, greylag 15
Linnets
We have had an answer from Jon Carter about the loss of linnets this year. He said that they did a circuit of the maize fields on Aldcliffe Marsh and Fairfield. The maize has bee replaced by grass so the linnets are no longer interested
Early January records on the sightings board
Chaffinch 38, linnet 11, reed bunting 4, stock dove 4, blackbird 4, greenfinch 1, gold crest 1, song thrush 1, goldfinch 12, long-tailed tit 6, and 1 little egret in West Field.
Yesterday Will Walton dropped off more feed from the RSPB
January Snipe Flush Count
The Flush team carried out the January Snipe flush count on Monday 9th in reasonable weather, after the recent downpours. We were joined by Colin McShane, as seen on Winterwatch. He is doing a long-term study of Jack Snipe and was impressed by the numbers found in Big Meadow, and has deemed it to be an important site for these birds. This winter there have been slightly lower numbers of Common Snipe, probably due to the mild conditions across Scandinavia and Northern Europe. We counted 20 Jack Snipe and 37 Common Snipe, all in Big Meadow except for 1 Jack Snipe in School Pond, so a total of 57.