Early Breeding Bird Survey: North West Zone 24/04/18

While I often deliberate wearing gloves and scarf, the chilly early mornings don't bother the breeding birds, and in April you are almost guaranteed a lusty dawn chorus.

Tom Forward beginning our bird transect in the North West Zone

We began our survey sometime after the dawn chorus ends, as this is when birds are more active and getting on with their day. Along the first section of the River Mole, one of the first species for the list was a warbler; a male Common Whitethroat in the scrub where the river pops out from under the runway. A loud scuffle between two male Reed Buntings caught our attention, then a moment later we heard something quite different; a manic chattering and trilling call from a hedgerow...

A Sedge Warbler! Our very first for this site survey (and hopefully not the last!)

Sedge Warbler (Acrocephalus schoenobaenus) RSPB

A Blackcap sang from another hedgerow, Blue Tit and Song Thrush were calling as we passed by. Rounding the bend of the river, Linnets were calling overhead and we spooked a Green Woodpecker, which shot off with a yaffling cry.

The wheel ruts along the track have become especially deep in the past year, which is good news for the frog population. We often get both Common Frog and Marsh Frog on site here, but these look like the usual Common Frog tadpoles.

While Tom is distractedly checking Reed Beds for our elusive Water Rail, I sneak a peak under one of our reptile refugia...

Grass Snake (Natrix helvetica) juvenile, less than one year old

Keep your head in the game Rachel, back to the birds! 

We were treated to the fluttering display flight of a Common Whitethroat on top of the riverside willows. Over in the scrub west of Brockley Wood, we added Chiffchaff to our list of warblers heard today, with it's easily recognisable, onomatopoeic song.

Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita) RSPB

Along the bases of these hedgerows grow the strongest smelling spring flowers; Wild Garlic or Ramsons (Allium ursinum) is an incredibly pungent plant, very much like onion or garlic in its taste. Much to Tom F's dismay, I can never resist chewing on a leaf or two.

We set off again in an oniony-fugue, with Tom determinedly keeping upwind of me. As the day was warming up, the scent of Bluebells began to hit us and they were smelling great (even if I wasn't).

Brockley Wood

At the woodland edge, we picked up another Chiffchaff and the excited song of a Goldcrest, our smallest bird species. We haven't had a single record of Firecrest at Gatwick, but as their range is seemingly expanding, I'm betting one will turn up here eventually.

Goldcrest (Regulus regulus) RSPB

Firecrest (Regulus ignicapillus) RSPB

Back out onto the floodplain, and the Reed Warblers were chugging their songs from deep within the reed beds. Our first Swallow of the year flew low overhead, calling relatively quietly so we were lucky to spot it. We were a couple of kilometers into the transect when a strange rattling call came into range; the call of Lesser Whitethroat is pretty unmistakable!

We don't tend to get high numbers of Lesser Whitethroat, so it's always a real treat to hear one. Our next warbler on this warbler-fest was Garden Warbler, which was singing heartily while being chased around by a territorial Blackcap.

Adjacent to the reed beds of the River Mole are dense stretches of Water Mint and nodding heads of Cowslip... even the refreshing smell of crushed mint doesn't mask the Ramsons though.

Nearing the end of the final transect, we witnessed an incredible performance by a Reed Warbler incorporating perfect Blue Tit alarm calls into its song. We then came along another Sedge Warbler near the Long-horned Bee bank; could this be a new breeding territory? Our final warbler of the day was Willow Warbler, bringing our total number of warbler species to 8: Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Common Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat, Reed Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Garden Warbler and Willow Warbler. That's quite a high number, so we think that perhaps this day was a 'fall of warblers' and some of them may only be passing through. It will be interesting to see what turns up again later in summer.

Full bird list (39 species):

Blackbird	Turdus merula
Blackcap	Sylvia atricapilla
Blue Tit	Cyanistes caeruleus
Bullfinch	Pyrrhula pyrrhula
Carrion Crow	Corvus corone
Chiffchaff	Phylloscopus collybita
Coot	Fulica atra
Dunnock	Prunella modularis
Garden Warbler	Sylvia borin
Goldcrest	Regulus regulus
Goldfinch	Carduelis carduelis
Great Spotted Woodpecker	Dendrocopus major
Great Tit	Parus major
Green Woodpecker	Picus viridis
Grey Heron	Ardea cinerea
Jackdaw	Corvus monedula
Jay	Garrulus glandarius
Kestrel	Falco tinnunculus
L.Whitethroat	Sylvia curruca
Linnet	Carduelis cannabina
Long-tailed Tit	Aegithalos caudatus
Magpie	Pica pica
Mallard	Anas platyrhynchos
Moorhen	Gallinula chloropus
Nuthatch	Sitta europaea
Pheasant	Phasianus colchicus
Reed Bunting	Emberiza schoeniclus
Reed Warbler	Acrocephalus scirpaceus
Ring-necked Parakeet	Psittacula krameri
Robin	Erithacus rubecula
Sedge Warbler	Acrocephalus schoenobaenus
Skylark	Alauda arvensis
Song Thrush	Turdus philomelos
Stock Dove	Columba oenas
Swallow	Hirundo rustica
Whitethroat	Sylvia communis
Willow Warbler	Phylloscopus trochilus
Wood Pigeon	Columba palumbus
Wren	Troglodytes troglodytes

Early Breeding Bird Surveys 2014

North West Zone: Thursday 24th

I'm not my shiniest at 5.30am, but the spring bird song along the River Mole corridor is well worth hauling out of bed for.

Tom F of Gatwick Greenspace Partnership leads the main bird surveys here, which we carry out four times a year. Last week it was the early breeding birds and we were hoping to pick up on the newly arrived summer migrants. Our first port of call was the North West Zone, closest to the runway...

The very start of our transect brought us the goods, with Swifts and Swallows overhead at Povey Cross. Over here the scrub, grassland and wetland produces warbler action in the form of Blackcap, Chiffchaff and Common Whitethroat. I got excited to hear the weird song of a Lesser Whitethroat, although its a shame it was all on its ownsome.

It seems like the wildflowers are peaking already, with Ragged Robin and Cowslip coming into their own...

A group of nodding Cowslip (Primula veris)

Ragged Robin is a pants name for such a lovely flower, but at least it has a fancy binomial 

(Lychnis flos-cuculi)

Earlier grasses are also coming into flower, as my violent hayfever can attest to. Above is Meadow Foxtail (Alopecurus pratensis)

Reed Bunting and Reed Warbler have begun setting up their territories in wetland scrub and reed beds. If you look closely, you can just about make out a brown splodge perched at the top of a reed stem (possibly only the 3rd worst photo of a male Reed Bunting ever taken).

 

This Reed Bunting song is from the awesome bird call website Xeno Canto. This species seems to have quite a regional variation, so it took a while to find a recording similar to those individuals I am hearing here (this one happens to have been recorded in Berlin, Germany).

In the rough grassland at the very end of the transect was a new bird for our survey - a group of Common Starling. They have always been a stone's throw away on the airfield, so perhaps it is just luck we saw them today.

This is the day's list for the NWZ:

1.       Stock Dove

2.       Wood Pigeon

3.       Swift

4.       Great Spotted Woodpecker

5.       Green Woodpecker

6.       Jay

7.       Magpie

8.       Jackdaw

9.       Carrion Crow

10.   Starling

11.   Swallow

12.   Great Tit

13.   Blue Tit

14.   Blackbird

15.   Song Thrush

16.   Robin

17.   Blackcap

18.   Chiffchaff

19.   Whitethroat

20.   Lesser Whitethroat

21.   Reed Warbler

22.   Goldfinch

23.   Chaffinch

24.   Bullfinch

25.   Reed Bunting

26.   Dunnock

27.   Wren

28.   Common buzzard

29.   Pheasant

30.   Mallard

31.   Moorhen

Land East of the Railway Line: Friday 25th

This morning was a bit duller and cooler after some refreshing overnight rain. Over on this side of the airport, we have more extensive ancient woodland as well as the larger water treatment ponds.

Tom F. setting a badger trail camera before the survey

I had left my camera on charge this morning (gahh), so resorted to using my camera phone instead. It doesn't cope so well with the low light levels and the pics have come out with a weird, ethereal glow to them...

Native Bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta)

These white Bluebells are most likely our native type, but an occasional genetic mutation can result in the complete lack of pigment.

♪ Purple haze, all around... ♫

The Bluebells seem to be putting on an intense show this year, almost as if they are sensing impending pressure of future woodland environmental policy...
   The woodlands are alive with birds (as well as the occasional plane engine roar), so we have to make several stop whilst standing agape, trying to pick out the individual species. Wren, Robin, Dunnock, Great Tit and Blue Tit do a good job of trying to drown out the competition. The warblers have been setting up territory here too, with Chiffchaff and Blackcap in abundance.

I am doubling up our recording effort with a survey form I have created for iRecord, hopefully to help with speedier bird data entry. I put numbered markers onto a printed aerial map, then reference them next to our species list.

Moschatel or Town Hall Clock (Adoxa moschatellina) is a cute but often overlooked woodland flower

For me, the find of the day was a Willow Warbler in Goat Meadow. This is a new record for our Gatwick bird surveys and our 6th species of Warbler. The song has a lovely, mellow descending trill which shows on this sonogram...

This slightly made up for the fact that the regular Marsh Tits I had promised Tom had stood us up. 

   Other woodland niceties showed up towards the end of our transects, including Tree Creeper, Nuthatch, Great Spotted Woodpecker and Goldcrest. Barn Swallows have arrived in the last couple of weeks and they could be seen and heard hawking over the water treatment ponds.

A young Mug Tree

We finally tracked down our singing Song Thrush at the end of the transect, ruling over a group of squabbling Dunnocks in the Upper Picketts deadhedge. The final list was shorter than our usual average of 30, possibly due to the slightly cooler day, or perhaps some species are already busy nesting and have less time to sing.

LERL final list:

1. Stock Dove
2. Wood Pigeon
3. Great Spotted Woodpecker
4. Green Woodpecker
5. Jay
6. Magpie
7. Jackdaw
8. Carrion Crow
9. Swallow
10. Great Tit
11. Blue Tit
12. Coal Tit
13. Long-tailed Tit
14. Blackbird
15. Song Thrush
16. Robin
17. Goldcrest
18. Blackcap
19. Chiffchaff
20. Willow Warbler
21. Chaffinch
22. Dunnock
23. Wren
24. Treecreeper
25. Nuthatch