Last week was the first opportunity we had to get together, and although the weather has recently been less than conducive to walks in the country, we were extremely lucky, and the weather held long enough for us to amass a huge number of species. We met at the car park at the Nuralite site near Higham.
At this time of year the birds are starting to quieten a little, but we did find chiffchaff, blackcap, reed warbler, wren, green woodpecker, long-tailed tit, robin, whitethroat, chaffinch, dunnock, skylark, goldfinch and pied wagtail. On and over the nearby fields we saw pheasant, grey heron and swift. The find of the day was hearing a turtle dove, sadly in decline at present.
When we carried out our surveys we also found three nightingale on the site - probably the first three to be found east of London, and heard cuckoo. We would not expect to hear these two species at this time of year, but hopefully they will have had breeding success this year.
Plants along the first mile or so of the walk were diverse and ensured our progress was slow and productive with water figwort, lesser burdock, hedge woundwort, nipplewort, spear thistle, welted thistle, smooth sowthistle, creeping thistle, common mullien, black mullien, white mullien, herb robert, hemp agrimony, fleabane, greater willowherb . . . the list went on and on, over 84 species in all.
The team are working hard to maintain the pathway open for walkers and cyclists (it is part of the Sustran 1 route), whilst also keeping habitat for wildlife - not an easy balancing act at the best of times, but with a limited number of volunteer enthusiasts and little funding, they are doing a great job.
When we carried out our surveys we also found three nightingale on the site - probably the first three to be found east of London, and heard cuckoo. We would not expect to hear these two species at this time of year, but hopefully they will have had breeding success this year.
Plants along the first mile or so of the walk were diverse and ensured our progress was slow and productive with water figwort, lesser burdock, hedge woundwort, nipplewort, spear thistle, welted thistle, smooth sowthistle, creeping thistle, common mullien, black mullien, white mullien, herb robert, hemp agrimony, fleabane, greater willowherb . . . the list went on and on, over 84 species in all.
The team are working hard to maintain the pathway open for walkers and cyclists (it is part of the Sustran 1 route), whilst also keeping habitat for wildlife - not an easy balancing act at the best of times, but with a limited number of volunteer enthusiasts and little funding, they are doing a great job.
