August
6th, 1999
There is
now little, if any, bird song in the grounds much of the
time, so it can be quite difficult to locate some of the
bird species which were very conspicuous early in the
year. However, family groups of birds are now roaming the
grounds feeding in trees and hedgerows and their constant
use of simple, brief calls for keeping in touch with each
other as they move around is a help in finding them. It
has usually been possible to find two or even three
groups of long-tailed tits in recent weeks and these have
sometimes been accompanied by young willow warblers and
their parents.
An interesting
sighting, on the 2nd, was of three young spotted
flycatchers. Again, it was the communication calls which
drew my attention to these and I found them sitting on the leafless upper branches of the
dying ash tree in the field that contained the cricket
pitch some years ago. The flycatchers darted out from
their perches occasionally to snatch flies from the air
and they kept up their calls to each other and to at
least two other birds which were concealed amongst thick
vegetation on the other side of the River Went.
Flycatchers have,
in the past, nested in Great Garden amongst the thick ivy
on the side of the old laundry. During the past two
years, ivy and Virginia creeper have been removed from
the old laundry and from most other buildings around
school, greatly reducing the number of available
nest-sites for the flycatchers and for some other
species. I saw some flycatchers in Great Garden earlier
in the summer but have not sighted them since then, so
the birds seen recently were probably passing through.
There are fewer wildflowers to see than there were
earlier in the year but some of the seed-heads that they
are producing are quite interesting. The seed-heads of
umbellifers, such as hog-weed, are attractive and will
become more so in a months time when the first frost
arrive. The wooded areas had thick carpets of bluebell in
some parts earlier in the year. The vegetation has now
died back, making them less noticeable, but the dried
flower stems remain standing. The seed cases on these
have now become dry and papery and rattle when shaken
because many still contain a few of the large, black
seeds.
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