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.