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Wildlife Reports February 2004
Paul King returning from a business trip in the early hours of the morning, narrowly missed a group of four Roe deer crossing Shalford Road. There have been increasing reports of Roe sightings in Rayne in recent years but they are all after dark. Elsewhere in Essex this shy animal is often seen during the day, though I suspect it is after it has been disturbed. Paul also comments on the number of rabbits. They have stripped the bark off hedgerow trees and even stripped laurel. This is poisonous but has not reduced the rabbit population. The early butterfly collectors including my wife when she was a child, used crushed laurel leaves in a jar to kill butterflies. Rabbits are at present suffering from Myxomatosis, which is a virus disease that is carried by the rabbit flea and usually causes an epidemic when rabbit populations increase much like flu in humans. There are many strains of the virus and the latest seems to be more virulent than that of recent years as it is causing high rabbit mortality.Ray Peake, our groundsman has reported seeing a Little Egret at Saling on Pods Brook which confirms the sighting last month by Ken Turner in Rayne.
Mrs. Olley, Dunmow Road has had seven Long Tailed tits feeding on fat balls, Great Spotted and Green Woodpeckers, Pied Wagtails and a Mistle Thrush in the garden. We have two pairs of Mistle Thrushes in the farmyard; this is a bird that has increased in numbers and one that I never saw in Rayne as a youngster. Mrs Olley is also pestered by rabbits, unfortunately she lives next to an uncultivated field that is carpeted edge to edge with rabbits (well almost).
Mark Giles saw a badger crossing the road by Green (yellow) Acres a regular crossing point and probably on its way to feed on worms on the school playing field. Also he saw three Fallow Deer on the Shalford Road allotments.
Harold Giles with other observers saw a herd of 25 Fallow Deer running from Rumney Wood towards Golden Grove wood. A similar herd of 11 were also seen just north of Pods Brook in Panfield Parish. I can confirm that the deer tracks in this area are amazing being more numerous and better used than any human footpath.
Phil Monk, has given a detailed report of their garden in Smithsfield. He had his first visit in September of a Kingfisher to their pond, which it repeated in early December landing in the hedge overlooking the pond not 10ft away, giving him a marvellous view. Gold Crests drink from the stream and also land on the water lily leaves in the pond to drink. A Great Spotted Woodpecker has fed on the log fat feeder and there have been visits from Green Woodpeckers.
A pair of Stock Doves feed on any grain spilt from the bird feeder. We called them Blue Rocks when we were children and I must admit they often ended up in the cooking pot. The pair that nest in our garden oak each year are safe from that fate.
Phil also had Blackcaps visiting with 2 male and 1 female on Christmas Eve. Redwings and Fieldfares arrived in the garden during December. They also arrived in our garden at the same time and ate the last of the cotoneaster berries and the fallen apples in the orchard.
Phil has also had visits from a male Sparrow Hawk that true to its name plucked a House Sparrow while he watched then flew to a neighbour’s garden to enjoy its meal. There have been further visits by both male and female Sparrow Hawks often throughout the day. This usually indicates they have not made a kill that day, as they will continue hunting until they do. If they have young to feed they do not stop hunting as, like many birds of prey, they hatch up to three or four young but the number reared probably depends on the quantity of food the parents can supply. I do know where a pair of Sparrow hawks is roosting every night in the village. They return to the roost, as it is getting very dark. Phil also recounts in detail another hawk kill where a House Sparrow sat under a Pyracantha bush twittering away. The Hawk peered into the bush from a nearby fence then dived in and emerged with the sparrow. It is this ability to fly into very thick hedges sometimes at great speed and emerge the other side unscathed that shows their amazing agility. They have evolved with relatively short broad blunt shaped wings designed to allow quick changes of direction. It should be added that it is not uncommon to find Sparrow Hawks dead or with broken wings that have mis-timed their attack. I have left Phils most “surprising sighting” to last. This was a Hooded Crow on the 23rd January in Queenborough Lane. It is a race of the Carrion Crow and has a dingy grey body colour, black wings, tail and head with a black breast marking. It is resident and breeds in Ireland and North Scotland but is also common in parts of Europe and Russia. A small number are found in the eastern part of the UK in winter and these may be continental visitors or from the UK population. I believe this sighting is a first for Rayne.
I have had many reports about illegal hare coursing and rabbit shooting. The so-called travelling community usually carries out these activities. The police refuse to get involved but are willing to offer advice like taking registration numbers, which nearly always belong to scrapped vehicles. Our hare population is now down to one pair the lowest number I have ever known on the farm.
The newts have returned to Phil’s pond, so please let me know if you have any in your garden. We need the records so that the information may be used for a new book on Essex newts. Syl and I would have to positively identify the species.
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