Hedgerow Homes - May Summary Paul Ritchie

May has been a month of two halves. The first two weeks were fairly typical - cool - but over the last two weeks of May there have been winds, heavy rain and searing heat, which has had a significant impact on my bird records both in terms of bird activity and of course my willingness to go outdoors to survey. During May the numbers of birds recorded singing or spotted during the survey walks were reduced across all four habitats but most significantly on the open farmland and single canopy woodland in the spinney.

Although bird sightings were reduced in our garden and on the riparian walk the impact on bird activity was greatly reduced by the level cover provided by dense scrub, shrubs and trees. The validation of this thought process was reinforced by the fact that those fewer birds recorded on farmland and spinney were clearly linked to hedgerows and small patches of dense understorey. This is ironic in context of National Hedgerow Week at the start of the month… hedgerows are a man-made replica of dense scrub cover once naturally occurring across the English countryside before land was cleared for large scale arable fields.
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Although I’ve not yet finished surveying for this season, so far I’ve recorded a total of 55 species of bird across all four of my survey routes, it’s clear that 16 species regularly feature in most surveys… Wood Pigeon, Greater-spotted Woodpecker, Wren, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Magpie, Jackdaws, Carrion Crow, House Sparrow, Pheasant and Ring-necked Parakeet. The key feature of common across our local landscape that supports these birds are the ancient trees, dense scrub habitats and mature hedgerows that provide food, shelter and nest sites.

Here is my data collection sheet for May

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