Wild About the Valley 2005

April 2005

Red Kites are being seen more often in the Kennett area; one was seen on the West Overton to Lockeridge road and another was seen twice on different days at the Shaw Farm end of West Woods.  A flock of 30 plus Meadow Pipits was spotted at East Kennett at the end of February and Sky Larks have returned to two fields in the valley. There have been sightings of Yellow Hammers on Wyman’s Hill and on the Ridgeway, and Green Woodpeckers in Lockeridge and at the East Kennett long barrow.  Young Rooks are squawking in their nests, and Blackbirds, Mistle and Song Thrush are all nesting. Blue and Great Tits are inspecting nesting boxes and quite a few Goldcrests have been seen in the valley. The first Swallow was seen on 7 April but no Cuckoos yet. In my garden I counted 16 Goldfinches on 6 April and my Tree Sparrows have increased to four, with one pair beginning to nest in one of the bird boxes. Sparrow Hawks are a bit of a nuisance in most gardens where birds are fed. Try to locate your feeders near to trees or a hedge where small birds can dive for cover when threatened by this invader.

May 2005

A double compartment, open-fronted nesting box with only one entrance that Bill Pearce put up has been occupied by a Little Owl at the back and a Jackdaw at the front. It meant that the Little Owl has to go over the top of the Jackdaw to get to its nest – rather unusual. A Green Woodpecker was seen at Avebury on 24 April and there have been Wheatears on the Wansdyke. Coots, Moorhen and Mallard all have young on the Kennett and there are Marsh and Willow Tits at Lockeridge as well as Bullfinch and Whitethroat. The Song Thrush in my garden reared five young and is now making another nest. Also nesting are Blue Tit, Great Tit, Wren, Tree Sparrow, Greenfinch, Goldfinch and Linnet. There are Long Tailed Tits and Goldcrest at West Overton. The number of Swallows, House Martins, Swifts and Cuckoos still seems to be very low.

 June 2005

On 13 June, at a house in West Overton, the lawn had just been cut exposing a red ants’ nest. Within a matter of minutes a male Blackbird started feeding on the ants and eggs. After a while he spread his wings and tail, puffed out his feathers and flopped down on the ants’ nest for about a minute before starting to feed again. Over a period of twenty minutes he did this five times. In over fifty years of watching birds I’ve never seen this before. Why did he do it? Has anyone got an explanation?!

The Tree Sparrow’s nest in my garden somehow got destroyed but I have had one young bird being fed. The young of the Blue Tits, Great Tits and Wren have all left their nests and the Song Thrush has hatched another brood.

A pair of Stock Doves was seen in a garden at Fyfield and three Herons in a field nearby. Also at Fyfield a Pied Wagtail has taken up residence in a hanging basket. It is reported she has three eggs. A pair of Nuthatch with three young are in Lockeridge.  Kestrels have hatched young near Beckhampton, Lapwing are nesting west-south-west of East Kennett on a piece of ground in the middle of a field which the farmer had left for ground nesting birds. From Winterbourne Monkton to Fyfield there have been plenty of Great Spotted Woodpecker sightings reported throughout the valley.

July 2005

Thank you to all those persons who rang or spoke to me about the blackbird. You all came up with the same answer that I got from the Bird Watching Magazine: the ants deposit formic acid onto the feathers and this helps to kill and control bird mites and lice.

Bird of the month must be the report of a Red Breasted Flycatcher at Winterbourne Monkton on June 30^th. Red Kite was over Lockeridge on June 28^th. An update on the Pied Wagtail in the hanging basket: laid five eggs, hatched four. Three pairs of Spotted Flycatchers at different locations in Lockeridge. Blackcaps and a nesting Reed Warbler at the bridge in East Kennett. Goldcrest reared at least four young in the conifers at The Bell’s car park. My garden Song Thrush is nesting for the third time.

October 2005

A farmer starts to plough a field and not long afterwards Seagulls will arrive. It was said that they were inland because it was rough at sea. This is a myth – worms and grubs are part of their diet. Locating a plough in a field is quite easy for them. The retina of the eye is made up of cones and rods: the human retina has some two hundred thousand rods, birds have up to one million, so a Seagull flying half a mile high would have no trouble seeing a plough six or seven miles away, so a seven mile radius would attract a lot of birds. Birds of prey have the best eyesight. For example, the human eye could see a rabbit twitch its ear at 200 yards, but a bird of prey could see the same twitch at two miles.

 Weather forecasters are predicting a harsh winter. If this happens to be the case a lot of birds will suffer so now is the time to start feeding them so they will know where to find food easily. Don’t forget about ground feeding birds like the Robin, Blackbird, Song Thrush, Dunnock and Chaffinch. Some foods to put on the ground are wild bird mix, apples and pears, and Robins love porridge oats – oh, and don’t forget fresh water.

 A small flock of Golden Plover was seen near the Yatesbury turning on 16 October, and a flock of over one hundred Lapwing hovering at Boreham on 14 October. Redwings and Fieldfare arrived at the end of September.  I had a female Siskin in my garden on 13 October, and flocks of Long Tailed Tits have been seen at Lockeridge, West Overton and East Kennett. The highest count was fourteen. The last of the Swallows and House Martins were seen on 8 October.

December 2005

Heavy rains at the beginning of the month got the River Kennett flowing again for three days but this was only surface water off the hills further upstream. The 12th December saw the first clear water at East Kennett so now we know that the springs are beginning to work again. Last winter it was 28th January before we had a flow so hopefully this winter’s flow will bring the wild life on the river back much earlier. Lapwing and more than 200 Golden Plover have already been seen in the field south of Café Hill. The end of November produced a Snow Bunting at Stanton St Bernard – only the fourth recording for Wiltshire. There was a female Brambling in my garden on 20th and 27th November, and a possible Twite which only stayed about 10 minutes so I could not get it verified. Flocks of Long Tailed Tits have been seen throughout the valley and there are still quite a few pairs of Goldcrests about. Herons seem to be visiting the valley more often and the meadows riverside of North Farm is a good place to see them. There are plenty of Redwing and Fieldfare about and Sparrow Hawks are regular visitors to the gardens, hoping to catch the unwary bird. Regular visitors to gardens on the West Woods side of Lockeridge are Jays, Nuthatch, Tree Creepers, Green Woodpeckers and a Hawk that looked a bit like a Nobby! It had a very black looking head to the top of its beak and a buffy pinkish speckled breast, low flying, fast, and very slender with pointed wings.