Spring is sprung the grass is riz, I wonder where the birdies iz?
The 2009 spring equinox fell on a Friday. Friday was a day of work. Work was where I was headed. In the preceding week the weather in southern Britain had been dominated by a high pressure system. This gave rise to clear nights resulting in a light frost followed by fine, sunny and warm days. Friday 20th March 2009 was no different. I ate breakfast looking out over the garden from the warmth of the kitchen and watched the frost dissipate as the sun slowly rose higher in the sky. The garden looks lovely at this time of year with daffodils flowering in the borders and the shrubs coming into leaf. Further evidence of spring was provided by two Eurasian Collared Doves canoodling on the garden fence, a Common Starling collecting a beakful of dried grasses and a female Common Blackbird tearing green vegetation from a flowering Aubretia and carrying it to a neighbour’s garden. Great Tits and Eurasian Blue Tits have been prospecting at a couple of our nest boxes but have not begun building yet. A pair of Robins have completed their nest in another box and already laid five eggs, but sadly, I think they may have deserted as I have not seen birds near the nest for several days.
Home is the Bedfordshire village of Henlow, about 45 miles (72km) north of London. By the time I came to leave for work at about 07:15, the frost had melted and I did not have to scrape the car windows. Several of the resident birds, Common Blackbird, Dunnock and European Robin were singing while both Common Wood Pigeons and Collared Doves were performing their ‘roller-coaster’ display flights. My office lies some 30 miles (48km) to the south entailing a commute of about an hour (depending on the traffic) and often enlivened by birding en route. The rookeries at Shillington (15 nests), Apsley End (49 nests) and Shillington Manor (3 nests) were hives of activity with much coming and going although building now appears to be complete. Major nest building in the rookery seems to take place between 8th-14th March in this part of the world. South of Hexton, my route climbs the north-facing scarp of the Chiltern Hills to 500 feet (155m) above sea level, before following the Mimram valley south-eastwards. A Red Kite, part of the successful reintroduction scheme, was seen perched in a roadside tree near Kings Walden. I now regularly record this species on my way to and from work, but less than 30-years ago had to make special trips to central Wales for a chance to see them. The upper reaches of the Mimram are dry, the first water appearing in ponds at Bendish Lodge where there were some Mallard and Common Moorhen. Nearby a pair of Mandarin Duck, they breed locally in most years, flew across the road. Northern Ravens are still quite rare in this area, so it was very pleasing to see one fly over just outside the village of Whitwell. My first for the year. Until very recently they were, like the Red Kites, absent from much of lowland England but in the last decade they have spread into the lowland counties although without the help afforded the kites.
My office is one of several in a converted barn at Bricket Wood, on the northern edge of Watford. Despite its location, the setting is pleasantly rural surrounded by horse paddocks and woods although traffic noise from the M25, London’s orbital motorway which lies just to the north, can be heard. In the warm, sunny conditions the birds were quieter than usual. Great Tits, Dunnocks and Starlings visited our bird table but only the wheezing European Greenfinches and the singing of Blackbirds, Dunnocks, Chaffinches and Robins came through the open window. The ringing cries of a European Green Woodpecker were heard, but other regularly heard species, such as Great Spotted Woodpecker, Eurasian Nuthatch and Eurasian Jay were noticeable by their absence.
I headed home via an alternative route, seeing fewer birds than on my way to work. Pairs of Red-legged Partridge were on the chalk fields along Whiteway Bottom, Kimpton where a Kestrel surveyed the ground from its vantage point on top of a telegraph pole. Sadly, the pair of Little Owls were not perched in their usual place.
Full species list for the Spring Equinox 20/03/2009: Grey Heron, Mandarin Duck, Mallard, Red Kite, Common Kestrel, Common Pheasant, Red-legged Partridge, Grey Partridge, Common Moorhen, Black-headed Gull, Mew Gull, Common Pigeon, Stock Dove, Common Wood Pigeon, Eurasian Collared Dove, European Green Woodpecker, Pied Wagtail, Dunnock, European Robin, Common Blackbird, Song Thrush, Eurasian Blue Tit, Great Tit, Eurasian Magpie, Western Jackdaw, Rook, Carrion Crow, Northern Raven, Common Starling, Common Chaffinch, European Greenfinch, European Goldfinch, Yellow Hammer (33 species).
The 2009 spring equinox fell on a Friday. Friday was a day of work. Work was where I was headed. In the preceding week the weather in southern Britain had been dominated by a high pressure system. This gave rise to clear nights resulting in a light frost followed by fine, sunny and warm days. Friday 20th March 2009 was no different. I ate breakfast looking out over the garden from the warmth of the kitchen and watched the frost dissipate as the sun slowly rose higher in the sky. The garden looks lovely at this time of year with daffodils flowering in the borders and the shrubs coming into leaf. Further evidence of spring was provided by two Eurasian Collared Doves canoodling on the garden fence, a Common Starling collecting a beakful of dried grasses and a female Common Blackbird tearing green vegetation from a flowering Aubretia and carrying it to a neighbour’s garden. Great Tits and Eurasian Blue Tits have been prospecting at a couple of our nest boxes but have not begun building yet. A pair of Robins have completed their nest in another box and already laid five eggs, but sadly, I think they may have deserted as I have not seen birds near the nest for several days.
Home is the Bedfordshire village of Henlow, about 45 miles (72km) north of London. By the time I came to leave for work at about 07:15, the frost had melted and I did not have to scrape the car windows. Several of the resident birds, Common Blackbird, Dunnock and European Robin were singing while both Common Wood Pigeons and Collared Doves were performing their ‘roller-coaster’ display flights. My office lies some 30 miles (48km) to the south entailing a commute of about an hour (depending on the traffic) and often enlivened by birding en route. The rookeries at Shillington (15 nests), Apsley End (49 nests) and Shillington Manor (3 nests) were hives of activity with much coming and going although building now appears to be complete. Major nest building in the rookery seems to take place between 8th-14th March in this part of the world. South of Hexton, my route climbs the north-facing scarp of the Chiltern Hills to 500 feet (155m) above sea level, before following the Mimram valley south-eastwards. A Red Kite, part of the successful reintroduction scheme, was seen perched in a roadside tree near Kings Walden. I now regularly record this species on my way to and from work, but less than 30-years ago had to make special trips to central Wales for a chance to see them. The upper reaches of the Mimram are dry, the first water appearing in ponds at Bendish Lodge where there were some Mallard and Common Moorhen. Nearby a pair of Mandarin Duck, they breed locally in most years, flew across the road. Northern Ravens are still quite rare in this area, so it was very pleasing to see one fly over just outside the village of Whitwell. My first for the year. Until very recently they were, like the Red Kites, absent from much of lowland England but in the last decade they have spread into the lowland counties although without the help afforded the kites.
My office is one of several in a converted barn at Bricket Wood, on the northern edge of Watford. Despite its location, the setting is pleasantly rural surrounded by horse paddocks and woods although traffic noise from the M25, London’s orbital motorway which lies just to the north, can be heard. In the warm, sunny conditions the birds were quieter than usual. Great Tits, Dunnocks and Starlings visited our bird table but only the wheezing European Greenfinches and the singing of Blackbirds, Dunnocks, Chaffinches and Robins came through the open window. The ringing cries of a European Green Woodpecker were heard, but other regularly heard species, such as Great Spotted Woodpecker, Eurasian Nuthatch and Eurasian Jay were noticeable by their absence.
I headed home via an alternative route, seeing fewer birds than on my way to work. Pairs of Red-legged Partridge were on the chalk fields along Whiteway Bottom, Kimpton where a Kestrel surveyed the ground from its vantage point on top of a telegraph pole. Sadly, the pair of Little Owls were not perched in their usual place.
Full species list for the Spring Equinox 20/03/2009: Grey Heron, Mandarin Duck, Mallard, Red Kite, Common Kestrel, Common Pheasant, Red-legged Partridge, Grey Partridge, Common Moorhen, Black-headed Gull, Mew Gull, Common Pigeon, Stock Dove, Common Wood Pigeon, Eurasian Collared Dove, European Green Woodpecker, Pied Wagtail, Dunnock, European Robin, Common Blackbird, Song Thrush, Eurasian Blue Tit, Great Tit, Eurasian Magpie, Western Jackdaw, Rook, Carrion Crow, Northern Raven, Common Starling, Common Chaffinch, European Greenfinch, European Goldfinch, Yellow Hammer (33 species).
