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Report of Stapleford Bird Club - October 2014

Despite the gloomy weather nine bird watchers turned up on the Magog Down on Saturday 4 October at 08.30 am. In the car park we saw or heard two robins, three magpies, two chaffinches, a greenfinch, and a goldfinch. Overhead flew a herring gull and two lesser black backed gulls.

On the North Down a green woodpecker and two kestrels were seen in flight but the grass was too long to see anything on the ground. Youth Wood was quiet apart from some unidentifiable murmurings but in the Old Shelter Belt and Magog Wood blue tits, great tits and a chaffinch were heard. At the top of North Down we heard a skylark and saw a crow, jay and magpie, while in the Clunch Pit were a robin and great tit. Moving down towards the Parish Pit we saw four chaffinches flying over and a kestrel hovering over the Feoffees Field. A dunnock was seen in the Parish Pit hedge and a robin in Jane’s Piece. On the ground in the Feoffees Field were 25+ corvids, mainly rooks. (A few days later I saw 200+ seagulls in the field beyond following a tractor as it was ploughing – a lovely sight!) At the bottom of the Clunch Pit we heard another robin and walking down towards the electricity wires we heard a second skylark. On the fence posts along the new hedge (which seems to be growing well) four crows were perched. In the area around the wires were a crow, magpie and two skylarks. In our arable field at least seven skylarks were flying around over the stubble, a couple rising up into the sky. Across the arable field a buzzard was seen towards Wandlebury.