Campus Bird Survey

The last of the field sessions for my ecology module on a Thursday was a couple of weeks ago. The aim of these field sessions was to improve people's bird identification skills in preparation for a campus wide bird survey- and to get people on the module involved in birdwatching for enjoyment purposes too.

As a group we've seen a really impressive number of species on campus (probably in excess of 50), with highlights being the Firecrest, Little Owls, Waxwings, Treecreepers, Siskins, Fieldfares, Redwings, Jays, both Green and Great Spotted Woodpeckers, lots and lots of Nuthatches and a Kingfisher. It's been great to get so many people involved in birdwatching, and has just shown how much biodiversity is present in such a small area. It really isn't necessary to travel such long distances to see stuff, when so much can be seen within walking distance.

So today was the day where the group was given the opportunity to put the skills gained over the last few weeks to the test in the campus survey of bird life. The group was split into 25 groups, with about 3-4 people in each. Each group was designated a small area of campus to cover (each area was about 200mm squared). The map below shows the way in which the campus was split up. The picture isn't very clear, but our group was allocated square 5  which hopefully you can see on the map.

The area of campus we were given actually contains my halls within it. The bird life that can be seen in this area is very reasonable, but not as diverse as the woodland, Harris Garden and lake areas of campus which are on the east and particularly south eastern areas. Squares such as 6,7,12 and 19-25 would probably have shown the highest number of species. But I was quite pleased with the square we were given as I knew the area quite well. The photo below shows a close up view of our particular square:

As the picture shows, our square covered some of the sports fields on campus, as well as a decent amount of tree cover. P2 marked on the map is a car park, and around there is where I saw the Redwings a few days ago. We were given an hour to walk around the square and record what we saw. The total tally for each bird seen in the hour was recorded- not the total number of birds seen at any given time as in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch. So there is potential that some individuals may have been counted more than once. Birds that were seen overhead were recorded, but we had to put a note beside those stating that they were seen flying overhead, as opposed to staying in the area studied. 

We started by heading out onto the sports grounds to see what was feeding on the ground. I was very surprised to see the group of Redwings which I thought had left campus, as they were no longer feeding around the car park area. There were around 15 Redwings in total, as well as 3 Mistle Thrushes and some Blackbirds. In the cluster of trees in the middle of the sports grounds just about on the boundary of our square we saw two Nuthatches chasing each other around near the base of one of the trees. Pied Wagtails were seen hopping around on the grass of the playing fields too. 

We then headed over to the other side of the path, walked around the car park for my halls and scanned the shrubs and trees on the other side of my halls where we saw Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tits, a Chaffinch and two more Nuthatches. Also seen flying overhead were Black-headed Gulls and a Red Kite. A Wren and a Greenfinch were heard calling too. As we moved on we saw yet another Nuthatch and heard lots more Great Tits. 

It was actually quite difficult to drag the birdwatching out over an hour, as the patch was quite small, and we'd looked over pretty much all of it after about 40 minutes. We decided to have one last look around the playing fields to see if anything else had turned up. We were pleasantly surprised to see a Great Spotted Woodpecker climbing one of the trees in the middle of the playing fields, and added this species to our list for the hour. The final species list can be seen below. I have not included the numbers of the species we saw as the counts form we filled in has been handed in to collate all the data. 

• Red Kite
• Black-headed Gull
• Feral Pigeon 
• Woodpigeon
• Great Spotted Woodpecker
• Pied Wagtail
• Wren
• Robin
• Blackbird
• Redwing
• Mistle Thrush
• Long-tailed Tit
• Blue Tit
• Great Tit
• Nuthatch
• Magpie
• Carrion Crow
• Chaffinch
• Greenfinch

So a total of 19 species were seen, not bad at all for an area of campus which definitely isn't one of the most biodiverse areas. 

So what next then? Well the data from all the groups will be collated, and the top 25 most common species on campus will be identified. Each group will then be given one of these species to produce an A1 poster about, with information on campus distribution, behaviour and a few other things. When this poster is done, I'll share that on the blog. So after we handed in our count forms, that was it for the day. 

Because I was surveying the birds throughout the hour, I didn't have my camera with me to take any pictures. So I decided I would head out later to see if I could get any better pictures of the Redwings around the sports fields. Below are a few of the photos I ended up with. The conditions were still pretty overcast, so the light for taking pictures wasn't too great, but the light was still better than what was available last time I tried to photograph them. The Redwings were much more reluctant for me to get too close to them as well, so maybe it's a different group to the ones I was seeing before around the car park.

After a while the sun came out from behind the clouds and allowed for a slightly more colourful image: 

After a while photographing the Redwings, I became distracted by a pair of Red Kites performing some impressive aerobatics above my head. I managed a few average pictures...

After seeing the Red Kites and watching the Redwings for a little longer, I decided to head back after a really satisfying day. And just to cap it all off, just as I was starting to type this post, I heard a Tawny Owl calling outside as I had my room window open. So that's another species seen/heard on campus for the first time to add to the Mistle Thrush I saw earlier in the day. 

February has been a fantastic month in terms of bird life here on campus and hopefully that will continue as March arrives. Spring is just around the corner and it'll be great to see some changes taking place here over the coming months. 

Thanks for reading and have a great evening :D

A Cold Sunday Walk

I decided I would go and have a walk round campus yesterday just for something to do really- Sunday's can be pretty quiet days at university. 

After about 2 minutes of walking I realised I had somehow managed to forget to bring my pair of binoculars, which is never really a great thing to forget for birdwatching. And I really could have done with wearing another layer as the temperature really struggled to rise in the morning. So it wasn't the greatest start to the walk it has to be said. In the end I decided I would just walk round and use my camera to take a record shot of anything that was too far away to identify, which, as it turned out worked fine really. 

I was half expecting to see the Redwings near my halls as I had done for the couple of days previous to this walk, but they've literally all gone, which came as a bit of a surprise. With the cloudy conditions, I wasn't really going to be getting any better photos of them but it would have been nice to see them again. I wonder if the reason why they were feeding so frantically the day before was preparation for the migration back to the continent, although it is still a little early for this you might think.

So anyway I moved onwards to the other side of campus and started walking round the lake. The usual species were present, such as Canada Goose, Mallard, Mandarin, Great Crested Grebe, Moorhens, Coots and Black-headed Gulls, although no sign of the Egyptian Geese which usually patrol the edges of the lake. Didn't take many photos at all but a couple of the ones I managed are below. Firstly a couple of shots of a Canada Goose...

And a male Mallard... 

There was a reasonable amount of activity in the trees surrounding the lake, with flocks of tits and finches roaming around above my head. Towards the end of the walk around the lake I came across the flock of Siskins that have been hanging around campus for a while now. Their unique calls and busy nature are always good to watch. 

Fairly nearby to where I saw the flock of Siskins I managed to see the unmistakeable flash of blue and orange of a Kingfisher flying low over the water surface- the second sighting of one since Christmas. They're supposedly quite unusual visitors to the lake so it's been good to have two sightings in a relatively short period of time. 

I then wandered through the woodland area for a little while, keeping my eyes peeled for a sighting of the Firecrest but I didn't see it anywhere. I'm assuming it's still around but I could be wrong. I also didn't see the Treecreeper which I've seen on my last couple of visits to the woodland. There were however a few Goldcrests and lots of Wrens about. Also as per usual, 3 or 4 Nuthatch sightings throughout the woodland walk. Also came across a pair of Goldfinches and lots of Chaffinches. The Great Tits were very vocal as usual and lots were about. Not long after I started walking through the woodland, alarm calls sounded from all over the place and a male Sparrowhawk could be seen flying fast through the trees. Carrion crows and a couple of Red Kites could also be seen overhead. 

As I walked over to the Harris Garden area, I heard a very vocal Great Spotted Woodpecker, which I only actually saw after a couple of minutes of listening to it. The first two species I saw after walking through the gates to the Harris Garden were a few Magpies and Jays, birds which seem to like the open space of the gardens compared with the tree cover in the woodland. Lots of small birds were around too, including this badly photographed Robin: 

I decided to call it a day not long after taking the photo above as it was really quite chilly and I had pretty much looked around the whole area. I saw 29 species throughout the walk which isn't too bad as I wasn't out for too long. I do hope this weather improves a bit over the next week or so, this cold spell has been such an unwelcome change from the warm sunny weather we were having the week before. 

Anyway, thanks for reading my aimless ramblings and have a great week :D 

Winter is Back

The last few days here have been bitterly cold, and even without having to walk far, bird activity has visibly increased here on campus. Quite a few heavy snow flurries throughout the day and grey skies throughout. I haven't gone for a proper walk round the campus but on the way to the library earlier to go and do some work I saw 10+ Redwings, a Nuthatch and 2 Jays without really making the effort to look out for them.

The Redwings in particular have been interesting to watch. I know they have been on campus throughout the winter, but it's the first time I've seen them in this particular area of campus. They are feeding about 2 minutes walk away from my university halls with a small group of Blackbirds. They're really easy to approach too, and I've been able to get within about 3 metres of them. I decided to pop out this afternoon with my camera to see if I could get a few photos of them. Although I was able to get really close to these birds, the light this afternoon has been really poor, so getting any decent photos was difficult. It would have been a bit of a missed opportunity not to get any photos though so I'm glad I got a few.

Hopefully they might stick around tomorrow as well and if the light is better, I might go and see if I can get any better photos.

Right, time to finish the work I started earlier in the library and then chill out this evening I think. About 4 weeks left of this term and a few deadlines to meet before then, so it's gonna be quite busy over the next few weeks. Will stop blabbing on now and get on with it! Enjoy the rest of your weekend and wrap up warm :D