Wildlife Reports for October 2005

Alan and Maureen Stannard were driving along Shalford Road at 2pm and had to stop as three fallow deer crossed the road near the farm entrance to Old Hall.   Allan looked in his mirror and to his surprise saw up to thirty Fallow crossing behind them.   Even allowing for double vision that is a large number of deer on the move during daylight.   This follows a similar report by Denise Lucia last month in the same area.   Alan also out with his taxi reported a Tawny Owl that sat in the middle of the road by Mounts Farm and when it finally flew brushed the car with its flight feathers.   He also delighted a passenger further down the road when they saw a Badger and only 10m away three Fallow, one a juvenile with antlers.
Harold Giles has seen deer slots around the Duckend Green allotments that came from the direction of Pods Lane.   Also in the same area he has seen a covey of 14 Grey Partridge, not a common sight in Rayne.
Ken Turner Shalford Road invited me to take pictures of a Privet Hawk Moth devouring his pyracantha.
Richard Price Sun Lido reports, a Sparrow Hawk sitting on his garden fence showing more than a passing interest in his neighbour’s aviary.
Lloyd Brown Brunwin Road, had a Chiff Chaff in the garden which stayed quite a while and a large number of young Goldfinches.   A group of ten have been feeding on his niger feeders. I have finally put away my niger feeder as after at least ten years I have only seen a Goldfinch on it once.   They do use our Black Sunflower feeder.   Lloyd also had a Sparrow Hawk kill a Collared Dove in the garden but the dove escaped when he opened the door.
Robert Bucknall told me about a juvenile Barn Owl flying and hovering beside his lakes.   He has since reported that the bird is regularly seen on Andrewsfield airstrip.   He and a friend also saw seven Buzzards around Golden Grove wood.   Robert thinks they were after the large number of dead rabbits around the wood.   It is possibly that like many raptors, one bird attracted others to the area or it could have been the scent of dead carrion as they also have a well developed sense of smell.
Andy Goodey had a Tree Creeper by Adrians Chair on the Flitch Way and half an hour later had perhaps the same bird in his garden on The Street.
Alan Spooner New Road, has sent me more pictures of the House Sparrow which has a predominately white head, nape and breast.   There was a very light coloured Sparrow that I did not see in the Swan area some years ago, this was wrongly identified as a female Desert Sparrow until a well known Essex birder saw it.   Alan’s bird has some black markings on its breast similar to the Spanish Sparrow.   The two species hybridise where they meet in North Africa and there are stable forms of the hybrid especially in parts of Italy and Switzerland.   Perhaps this bird has Spanish Sparrow blood in it.   We will have to wait and see if it finds a mate in the spring.
Mrs. Moore Kidder Road called to say they had found a bat under the lead flashing on their house roof.   The bat, which unfortunately was dead, could be identified as a Bandit Pipistrelle and the droppings indicated that the roost had held young bats.   From this evidence one can conclude there had been a maternity roost present that would have had female and newly born young bats in it.   I am pleased to say Mrs. Moore is willing to have the bats back again next year.   Bats do not carry nest material into the house and do not chew cables and quite often house owners never realise they have visitors.   This year we had a roost of nearly 200 and last year we had one of 400 bats both in modern chalet bungalows.   The former roost, the owners claimed had just turned up but all the signs were of several years of occupation.

Thank you to the new reporters this month.
Roger Jiggins 01376 324 311