Posted by Vincent Ganley, 11/23/04 at 1:50:03 PM.
October 2004 sightings at Wormwood Scrubs
2004 will go down as the year of the raptor. Marsh Harrier, Peregrine, Honey Buzzard, another Short-eared Owl and a new species for the Scrubs - a Common Buzzard.
This species has increased on a national level to the point that there are now more of them than Kestrels! Also, they are spreading eastwards towards London. In general, they are regular migrants in the London area, thus it was only a matter of time before one would be spotted over our site.
The other bird of the month was a fine Short-eared Owl. This diurnal owl has been recorded at the Scrubs 3 times in the past 12 years. They are probably much more regular.
Contributors: David Jefferies, David Lindo, Roy Nuttall et al.
Cormorant
This species has suddenly become quite scarce. At least 2 birds were seen on the 17th and 4 fairly high up on the 31st.
Grey Heron
Only 2 birds were seen passing over during the month.
Canada Goose
The usual numbers seen and heard during the month.
Sparrowhawk
Birds were still being occasionally seen during visits. This raptor was often only detected after noisy mobbing flocks of starlings, crows and assorted finches were noticed in aerial escort. A beautiful male was watched in great light on the 10th.
Common Buzzard
The first site record of a species that has been long expected to be seen in the Wormwood Scrubs skies. One was watched rising on thermals and then heading south on the afternoon of the 8th.
Kestrel
A couple birds were present on most visits during the month. Two males were present on the 3rd.
Lapwing
A couple drifted over on the 10th.
Snipe
A good showing this month in a year that has produced more records of this species than any other year. October’s records relate to 3 birds. One was watched landing in the ling grass near Chats Paddock on the 10th. In true Snipe fashion, it could not be flushed again. On the 31st, 2 circled high over the grassland before heading south. It was the first time a ‘flock’ had been observed here.
Black-headed Gull
Numbers of this species remained at a similar level to that of late September ie. around the 40 mark. Over 100 birds were present on the 31st.
Common Gull
After a slow start, numbers built to at least 10 birds.
Herring Gull
Numbers of this large and sometimes noisy gull peaked at 120 on the 31st.
Lesser Black-back
As with its congener, numbers began to build peaking at around 30 on the 31st.
Woodpigeon
Around 300 birds were counted on the playing fields on the 10th. The promised flocks of over flying continentals began on the 31st when at least 100 went over with at least 300 present at ground level.
Stock Dove
The only record this month was of one flying in loose association with a Feral Pigeon and a Woodpigeon.
Collared Dove
At least one bird was around the embankment on the 3rd.
Short-eared Owl
One flew low over the grassland (presumably flushed) on the 31st about 30ft from the observer heading south towards the trees near the south east corner of Braybrook Street. It was quickly seized upon by around 6 crows, which caused it to spiral upwards quite high and head to the west. This constitutes the third record for the site.
Rose-ringed Parakeet
Observers are continuing to largely ignore this squawker, indeed it’s the non-birders that seem to noticing them more! Over 25 were counted on the 10th.
Green Woodpecker
At least one bird was present during the month.
Great Spotted Woodpecker
This species was infrequently seen during the month – mostly seen traversing the football pitches in between the tracts of woodland.
Skylark
As the Swallow is the harbinger of summer, you know when winter is coming when Skylarks start appearing. This autumn has been exceptional especially given that there has been no hard weather. The movement involved around17 birds, the first of which were a pair followed later by a singleton on the 10th. A further bird appeared on the 17th and 7 were seen on the 21st. Finally, at least 6 were seen on the 31st.
Swallow
Migration carried on unabated during the early part of the month with more birds seen this autumn than in the last few years. On the 3rd over 30 birds were counted passing south overhead. A week later around 3 birds were seen briefly heading south from the Southern Paddock. They turned out to be the last of the autumn.
House Martin
This autumn passage has been exceptional with the highest number of birds seen passing over since 1994 – the last time we had a reasonable passage. The movement started on the 3rd when 13 passed through. On the 6th a flock of 45 passed over, with a single bird over on the 10th.
Meadow Pipit
October started were September left off with counts of over 40 birds. Over 57 birds were observed on the 16th. By the month’s end numbers had dropped to around 10 birds.
Tree Pipit
Of local interest was a reported bird flushed from the long grass on the 16th. This is perhaps our latest ever record of this species.
Pied Wagtail
The wintering population of around 5 birds have began to settle in the area, with their favourite area being the stadium and the surrounding tarmac parking lots and derelict ground. Up to 8 birds were seen in the stadium on the 31st.
Yellow Wagtail
Our latest ever Yellow Wagtails flew over on the 6th when 2 birds were noticed. They were part of a larger movement over west London that day. A calling singleton was watched flying over, distracting one of the Scrubs birders who was busy watching women along the fashionable end of Westbourne Grove, W2!
Wren
Several birds seen around the site throughout the month.
Dunnock
At least 15 birds were resident on the site. This is probably a gross under estimate.
Robin
Birds continue to sing around the area. Perhaps 20 birds are present.
Stonechat
After last month’s peak of 5 birds, 7 were discovered in the grassland adjacent to the western end of the embankment. They soon dispersed leaving a pair that remained throughout the month.
Song Thrush
The month started with very few sightings. Things had changed somewhat by the end of the month when at least 15 were seen including around 8 together on the embankment. Migrants?
Redwing
After several unconfirmed sightings during the end of September, over 400 were watched during the course of the morning on the 10th. They were mostly flying a high altitude coming from the east. After a brief dearth in records, over 30 were seen on the 17th with lesser numbers seen thereafter.
Fieldfare
Amongst the initial flocks of Redwings on the 10th, over 45 birds were spotted. Very few seen thereafter.
Mistle Thrush
This species remained irregular with an individual seen on the 3rd. A group of 3 were seen on the 6th.
Blackbird
The month started with this species being relatively scarce by Blackbird standards. By the 10th over 10 birds were counted. Interestingly, over 30 were watched in roving flocks feeding on berries on the 17th and around 20 on the 31st. A closer inspection revealed that most were first winter birds. Could they have been continental migrants?
Blackcap
The last remnants of the autumn passage were represented by female/immature glimpsed on the 3rd and another bird seen even more briefly on the 10th.
Chiffchaff
This species lingered on during the month. About 5 birds were counted on the 3rd, rocketing to over 20 birds on the 6th, dropping to around 6 birds on the 10th. The final bird of the autumn was seen on the 17th. It will be interesting to see if we get any wintering birds this year.
Goldcrest
The first birds of the winter were 2 on the 12th followed by one in the Southern Paddock on the 31st.
Great Tit
This species seemed to be fairly numerous with around 20 counted in the roving tit flocks on the 10th.
Blue Tit
There were at least 35 of these pretty tits (no pun intended) during the month.
Long-tailed Tit
Over 30 birds could have been present during the month.
Jay
This species was still fairly prevalent this month with peak counts of 6 birds on the 6th.
Magpie
A conservative count of 15 birds was made during the month.
Jackdaw
Small numbers were noted flying over during the month. Do these relate to different birds or is there (as suspected) a tiny local population nearby?
Carrion Crow
Over 160 were counted on the 10th.
Starling
This once ubiquitous bird seems to be regaining numbers with at least 150 birds seen on most visits.
Chaffinch
There seems to be a small wintering population numbering no more than 20 birds.
Goldfinch
General numbers continued to drop during the month and birds were mainly found along the southern edge of the site. Despite that over 40 were located on the 3rd the usual figure was nearer 25 birds.
Greenfinch
This species rapidly became the most common finch on the Scrubs. Over 30 were counted on the 31st.
Linnet
Numbers of this discreet finch seemed to have levelled off to around 10 birds in total. They could be found in the stadium and on the tops of the nearby Alders and to a much lesser extent, along the embankment and flying over the grassland. However, on the 10th there were 30 birds on the grass next to the running track in the stadium.
Bullfinch
At least 2 birds were present throughout the month.
November 2004 sightings at Wormwood Scrubs
The winter lull has kicked in with the general number and variety of species well down on October. There was also a conspicuous lack of House Sparrow records (the last were heard in August) and no Green Woodpeckers. On the positive side a possible Tree Sparrow was seen flying over on the 14th and we recorded our second and third ever Kittiwake. This is a real ‘seagull’ usually spending its time far out to sea, only rarely coming inland.
Contributors: David Jefferies, David Lindo, Roy Nuttall et al.
Cormorant
This is yet another species whose occurrence at the Scrubs has dropped off somewhat. We could only muster up 6 birds flying over on the 20th.
Canada Goose
Sporadically seen flying across the site through the month, though most usually heard from the nearby Grand Union. Nine on the 20th was the best count.
Coot
The second for the Scrubs, it was discovered in almost identical circumstances as the first – ie., in a rare moment of silence whilst birding near Chats Paddock it was heard calling once from the Grand Union.
Sparrowhawk
The usual sightings were had of this dashing hawk during the month.
Kestrel
The usual couple of birds were noted throughout the month.
Snipe
There appears to be a pair of Snipe that have taken to feeding in the grassland. At least one of them was flushed on almost every visit. They would sometimes tower off within 10 feet of the observer having concealed themselves perfectly, flying seemingly miles away, only to return minutes later. This constitutes the first wintering record for the Scrubs.
Kittiwake
Without a doubt the bird of the month and only the second record since Lester Holloway’s bird in the mid-eighties. Although superficially similar to a lot of the ‘grey backed’ gulls passing overhead, they are more elegant with a tern-like graceful flight on fairly narrow wings with solid black wingtips. Two singletons were noticed fairly high overhead on the 21st heading northwest. They were part of a general movement of gulls noticed moving across the sky on that misty morning, though they didn’t associate with any of the gull flocks.
Black-headed Gull
Numbers of this species remained fairly constant throughout the month with peaks of over 100 on the 28th.
Common Gull
Searches through the playing fields resulted in up to 15 of these gulls peppered amongst the assorted gulls.
Herring Gull
Most of the sightings this month (as with nearly all other months) were of birds flying over. The maximum count was approximately 30 on the 4th and the 28th.
Lesser Black-back
Many birds were seen travelling back and forth over the site during November and as with the Herring Gulls, only a few were on the playing fields. When viewed overhead, their silhouettes differ subtly from Herring Gulls. Simplistically, one slight difference is the Lesser’s narrower wings as the dark mantle is often difficult to discern on the murky winter days.
Woodpigeon
The influx of continental migrants occurred during early November with over 3000 passing over on the 7th.
Rose-ringed Parakeet
Despite not being looked for, far fewer are being noticed screeching over. There seems to be a genuine decrease. We can’t honestly say that we’re upset!
Great Spotted Woodpecker
One or two birds were encountered during the month.
Skylark
Last month’s spattering of records continued in the early part of November with 1 heading south west on 3rd and another on the 13th.
Meadow Pipit
We have come to realise that our ‘wintering’ birds actually move through on an almost daily basis. One day there may be none to be found and the next day there may by 20 flitting around the grassland. It begs the question; is the grassland at the Scrubs unsuitable for them or is it due to disturbance that numbers fluctuate so much? Or, are Meadow Pipits just prone to wandering in the winter?
Pied Wagtail
As usual, the best place to see our small wintering population is in and around the stadium.
Wren
There are at least 10 birds present across the Scrubs.
Dunnock
No real counts were made this month but they seemed fairly prevalent.
Robin
Numbers of this famililar species seemed similar to last month’s figures. At least 5 birds were in song, especially a male outside the exercise area near the stadium.
Stonechat
Another discovery we have made this winter is that the Scrubs is currently playing host to up to 3 birds – a winter male, a female and a 1st winter male. They are rarely seen all together at once, more usual seen as singletons and on some visits none can be found at all, despite searches. This species is usually fairly easy to locate as they love to stand on top of the thistles and grasses, so where they go when they are not with us is open to debate.
Fieldfare
Small numbers continued to be seen either passing over or actually in the trees on site. Around 30 (including 4 viewed at close range in the trees at the western end) were present on 3rd with 15 seen the following day. On the 20th 3 flew over with 8 over the following day and a singleton was flushed from the central copse on the 28th.
Song Thrush
Major counts were 5 along the embankment on the 28th some of which were in sub song.
Redwing
After last month’s large numbers passage became a trickle with single figure flocks being noticed.
Blackbird
Around 20 were counted on the 28th.
Chiffchaff
A roving pair were watched moving through the trees in Chats Paddock on the 14th before they flew off high to the east.
Goldcrest
There seems to be at least a couple of these diminutive sprites at large with the roving tit flocks and they can be encountered fleetingly in almost any stretch of the sparse woodland that we have.
Long-tailed Tit
There seems to be only one or two roving flocks in the whole area with approximately 25 birds involved.
Great Tit
Rather scarcer than off late. Perhaps birds have abandoned the Scrubs for the more food rich local back gardens.
Blue Tit
As with its larger cousin, there has been a drop in numbers over the last few weeks. But it is still one of the more common birds to be found.
Jackdaw
The only record for this month concerned a pair and a singleton heading over on the 3rd.
Carrion Crow
Slightly less than normal, perhaps just over 100 birds.
Starling
Still a fairly common bird with at least 60 seen all told on most visits.
Chaffinch
Birds were seen throughout the month, most of which were watched flying over. There were in excess of 20 birds present on the 3rd.
Bullfinch
Several birds were noted in November including at least 6 on the 14th.
Linnet
This finch has become exceedingly scarce as the winter wears in. On the 3rd about 6 birds were watched feeding in the tops of the Alders just outside the Southern Paddock with other finches.
Greenfinch
This pretty finch is now best found within the bushes in the Central Copse, the bushes and shrubs along Braybrook Street and along the southern edge of the site. The maximum count was over 30 on the 3rd.
Goldfinch
Numbers of this species has dropped right off. The most seen were 20 on the 3rd, otherwise we were hard pressed to see any.
