With the arrival of the autumn weather comes the arrival of a few wintering species of birds. This week the first fieldfares and redwings were spotted on the main heath at Broadwater Warren. A flock of at least 100 thrushes were seen on Thursday, comprising of mainly fieldfares as well as redwings, song thrushes, mistle thrushes and blackbirds. These birds have traveled from Scandinavia and northern Europe to over winter in the UK. They can often visit gardens, especially if you have trees with fruits or berries on, so keep an eye out for them.
Other birds seen on the heath include woodlark, which have been territorial singing, yellowhammers, meadow pipits and linnets. Stonechats can still be seen near the shooting butts.
Groups of birds including long tailed tits, coal tits, great tits, blue tits, treecreepers and nuthatches have been seen flocking in the woodland. Great spotted woodpeckers and bullfinches have also been seen near the zig zag boardwalk.
A few migrant hawkers can still be seen above the pond. We carried out a search for Olive crescent moth caterpillars this week. The moth is a UK biodiversity action plan species, it lays its eggs on hanging broken oak branches and the larvae then inhabit the dying oak leaves. The reason it has decreased is due to broken branches being commonly tidied up. We cut a few small oak branches and placed them on nearby trees back in June, which we then surveyed this week. On the small number of oak branches that we surveyed we found 9 caterpillars (see image) which was good to see.
Olive crescent moth caterpillar.
Please let us know of any sightings you may have on the reserve.