Late Breeding Bird Survey - North West Zone

Thursday June 19th

Solar Panel Field, North West Zone

It was a warm and hazy start to the morning when Laurie, Tom F. and I began our first birding transect, along the canalised section of the River Mole.

The sun beating down on a dirt track felt positively Mediterranean

In the riverside vegetation we picked up songs of Reed Warbler, Reed Bunting, Common Whitethroat and Wren. A lone Skylark was singing its head off by the airfield boundary, but in contrast the hedgerows were all pretty quiet.

Web of a large Orb-weaver spider...

Belonging to this lovely lady; a Furrow Spider (Larinioides cornutus)

Around the corner where the river begins to meander, we picked up the first confirmed breeding bird signs; fluffy Reed Warbler fledglings perched low-down in the Willows. 

Photo taken through my binoculars... As good as it gets!

In the scrub to the west of Brockley Wood, Blue Tits were in good numbers along with Chiffchaff, Common Whitethroat and a noisy pair of Linnets. Groups of fledgling Goldfinch were fluttering about, seemingly having a successful year. The northern part of Brockley Wood was busy with Jackdaws, Jay, Song Thrush and some unseen, uncharacteristically loud Bullfinches. 

Scrub West of Brockley

By the time we began the 2nd transect, the sun had burned off all the mist. The further along the River we travelled, the harder going the walk and the more insignificant we felt in the towering grasses... 

Riverside jungle

Ragged Robin (Lychnis flos-cuculi) and dense clumps of Hedge Bedstraw (Galium mollugo)

Into the 2nd transect, we picked up Long-tailed Tit, Coal Tit, Nuthatch, Carrion Crow and several Barn Swallows.

Large Black Slug (Arion spp.) 

The big hole in its side is the respiratory opening, called a pneumostome 

We were noticing lots of these funnel-like webs about the place...

Belonging to the Labyrinth Spider (Agelena labyrinthica) of Springwatch fame

There was an exciting moment when I thought I heard one of these...

But on second thought, it was actually one of these...

In my defense, it was quite far off in the distance.

Greenfinch and Garden Warbler cropped up toward the end of the 2nd transect, where the bordering areas become more residential. We got a good view of perching Ring-necked Parakeets. Sadly no Kingfishers today, but we saw lots of lovely damselflies including Common Blue, Banded Demoiselle and a female Broad-bodied Chaser Dragonfly.

We recorded a good number of fledglings today, which is all evidence of successful breeding. The final count was 33 species which is our usual total for this time of year:

1	Blackbird	Turdus merula
2	Blackcap	Sylvia atricapilla
3	Blue Tit	Cyanistes caeruleus
4	Bullfinch	Pyrrhula pyrrhula
5	Carrion Crow	Corvus corone
6	Chiffchaff	Phylloscopus collybita
7	Dunnock	Prunella modularis
8	Garden Warbler	Sylvia borin
9	Goldfinch	Carduelis carduelis
10	Great Spotted Woodpecker	Dendrocopos major
11	Great Tit	Parus major
12	Green Woodpecker	Picus viridis
13	Greenfinch	Carduelis chloris
14	Jackdaw	Corvus monedula
15	Jay	Garrulus glandarius
16	Linnet	Carduelis cannabina
17	Long-tailed Tit	Aegithalos caudatus
18	Magpie	Pica pica
19	Moorhen	Gallinula chloropus
20	Nuthatch	Sitta europaea
21	Pied Wagtail	Motacilla alba subsp. yarrellii
22	Reed Bunting	Emberiza schoeniclus
23	Reed Warbler	Acrocephalus scirpaceus
24	Ring-necked Parakeet	Psittacula krameri
25	Robin	Erithacus rubecula
26	Skylark	Alauda arvensis
27	Song Thrush	Turdus philomelos
28	Stock Dove	Columba oenas
29	Swallow	Hirundo rustica
30	Swift	Apus apus
31	Whitethroat	Sylvia communis
32	Woodpigeon	Columba palumbus
33	Wren	Troglodytes troglodytes

Mr Forward also shouted me a surprise birthday breakfast... a sweet start to the day!

Summer Breeding Bird Survey - NWZ

With Tom Forward of Gatwick Greenspace Partnership

River Mole grasslands along our Breeding Bird Survey transect

Friday was another one of those days where we were literally tripping over wildlife. The River Mole grasslands (just north of the airfield) are looking their best right now with many diverse and beautiful grasses in flower. I had never really noticed how rich and striking grasslands can be until last year after attending the grasses, sedges and rushes course with the Sussex Wildlife Trust. It was almost worth putting up with the hayfever! Almost.

NWZ Grassland along the diverted section of the River Mole

Crested Dog's Tail grass (Cynosurus cristatus) in flower

Quaking Grass (Briza media) in flower

Grass Vetchling (Lathyrus nissolia)

Tom can really shift it through the long grass and I have to run and jump to keep up, no time for my usual bird survey biscuit-break. When being inundated by the sound of lustily-singing territorial males the challenge is to train our ears and identify each particular bird song or call. We had just marched past what looked like a couple of manky old leaves stuck in the grass when Tom did a double-take, then uttered something possibly in French...

A pair of mating Eyed Hawk-moth (Smerinthus ocellatus)

These cryptic individuals are an impressive type of Hawk-moth which when disturbed will show a pair of brightly coloured eye-spots on their under-wings... see Eyed Hawk-moth - UK Moths. They were pretty absorbed by their own 'activities' and so didn't pay us much attention. I am just starting out with moth identification and it is really addictive; I'm like a lumbering T-rex in wellies, chasing anything which moves...

Blood Vein moth (Timandra comae)

I managed to collect this in an insect pot. Then nearby Tom yet again spots something cool roosting up in the grass, well-camouflaged among the scattered white rose petals and the patches of Cuckoo-spit...

White Ermine moth (Spilosoma lubricipeda)

Anyway, back to the birds! A new species to appear on the survey list for the NWZ was Garden Warbler, the song of which to me sounds like something in between a Blackcap and Whitethroat. I thought I had been hearing this about the place recently and so was glad Tom could finally confirm it for me:

Another new species on our timed survey was Ring-necked Parakeet; these have been established in the Gatwick area for quite some time. This is a species not native to Britain but are the result of escapees from over 40 yrs ago, as a result they are now very common around London and the south east.

Some of the usual suspects were conspicuous in their absence including Meadow Pipit, Lesser Whitethroat, Mallard Duck, Carrion Crow and Common Buzzard, which I had seen here just 2 days earlier. Sadly a no-show for Kingfishers too but no reason to think they might not still be around. Another thing I had thought I'd heard the week before was a lone Cuckoo in Brockley Wood which called just twice. Apparently by now they might be winging back down south on their way to more continental climes.
Here are a few of the other niceties we have seen:

 Ragged Robin (Lychnis flos-cuculi)

Roosting female Broad-bodied Chaser dragonfly (Libellula depressa) 

Crosswort (Cruciata laevipes)

Dog poo bin across the river

Our bird species total came to 30 on the timed part of the survey; just under our average count. You can see our day's species list here: NWZ Breeding Bird Survey June 2013