Summer Visitors Paul Ritchie

This last week has been one of significant change on my daily bird surveys as the landscape and climate go through a significant change. Firstly, the farmer has ploughed the fields, which initially brought earthworms to the surface that provided a glut for corvids (crows, jackdaw & magpie) and buzzard but now seeded and rolled the fields leaving a barren brown wasteland. The skylark have retreated to short grassland covering the restored quarry and landfill site in front of the Post Office. This has caused a significant drop in records for the field habitat.
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The second event of the end of April is the return of winter migrants, various species of warblers, closely followed yesterday by a Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) that lays her eggs in their nests calling for a mate. The warblers and their allies are well represented in my surveys with records of five of the 13 species of warbler that regularly visit South East England – Garden Warbler, Blackcap, Lesser Whitethroat, Willow Warbler & Chiffchaff love the dense scrub of the River Mole Valley. Of their allies I’ve recorded Goldcrest & Firecrest in our garden, as well as the woodland and riparian sections of the walk. As yet I’ve not managed to record any flycatchers in this area. My updated  species list is shown below.

                     Right the cuckoo my bird of the week.

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