A small colony of HOUSE SPARROWS lives around the houses on Old Norwich Road
What a dull dreary winter it has been on the Patch, literally in this case as December 2021 was declared the dreariest month in history. Things were pretty quiet bird wise and a walk around the Patch yielded little beyond the usual cast of resident birds. Things weren't helped by the mild weather, with the occasional frosts the only sign we were living through the coldest months of the year.
Trees around Rise Hall
January was the driest on record and the stream, usually a raging torrent at this time of year was reduced to a trickle. Birds you associate with winter, such as the WINTER THRUSHES were low on the ground and there was little sign of any cold winter movements. Leaves hung on to the trees and didn't really fall until well into November. With such inconsistences in our seasons it is still too early to predict what impact this will have on our nature, but no doubt it would struggle.
Singing ROBIN
Every year on the first day of the year, I brave the hangover to go out to do my first birding of the year on the Patch. And despite the fact that The Patch isn't very good for birds, its featureless agricultural land after all, it has a special place for me. It is my entrance into nature, a place on my doorstep, where I can leave the human world for a while. I was not the only one out on the Patch at this time as one farmer was ploughing a field on the first day of the year.
Farmer out on the field on New Years Day
Intresting sightings
Despite all the dreary weather there were still a few decent sightings of birds to be seen. The Patch isn't really great for attracting anything interesting, but every so often something unusual drifts through. The highlight was a RED KITE on 1/3/22, flying high over the Suffolk Punch Field before drifting east over Rise Hall. Red Kites have a very distinct shape, having a forked tail, and its bent wings distinguish it from the local BUZZARDS. This is a bird that although now common across the country is still scarce in this part of the country, this is only my second record for the Patch. However this is a bird that is on the rise, and will probably become as common here as the local buzzards.
Coppice stalls in Rede Wood
Another good sighting was a WOODCOCK at Rede Wood on 16/1. This is an unusual wader in that it prefers woodland to wetlands, and although not rare, the only time you see one is when you disturb one from cover. They are surprisingly large, almost the size of a partridge, but have a distinct shape. This is my third record for the area and the first for Rede Wood, the other two coming from the Suffolk Punch Field.
The Stream is running low this winter
Winter Movements
Winter is usually characterised by the movement of birds forced on by heavy weather. However when winters are so mild few birds are made to move involuntarily. Also with the mild weather less birds are forced into this country from the colder continent, and so linger closer to their breeding grounds. THRUSHES were few on the ground with just the odd single REDWING, with the only flock being one of only eleven on 1/1. The main exception was a flock of 60 FIELDFARE in the arable field that runs along Yellowhammer Hedge on 28/1, which was the only time there was any decent flock in the area.
GREAT TIT
SKYLARK flocks were exceptionally small this winter only peaking at fourteen on 4/2/22 from Yellowhammer Field. This is another winter, again, where no YELLOWHAMMERS have spent their time on the Patch. Seven or eight years ago there were flocks of at least fifty. I hope they have just wintered elsewhere, rather than indicating a crash in numbers.
From Lark Hill a flock of 300 LAPWING flying over fields in the distance on 27/12/21 was exceptional as these birds, or most waders in particular, are rare on the Patch as there are no areas of wetlands there. WOOD PIGEONS are always on the move and flocks of several hundred birds can be seen feeding on the fields, loudly flapping their combined wings in flight when they are disturbed into the air.
Under the pylons
Signs of Spring
With the mild weather, signs of Spring have begun to appear deep in what is traditionally seen as winter. Bird wise the most obvious signs of Spring are when our resident birds start singing. The first species to make some noise was a GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER drumming from the tall trees around Suffolk Punch Field at the end of December.
BLUE TIT
On 13/1/22 a SONG THRUSH was singing along Fisk's Lane, the path which connects Whitton to Anglia Retail Park, with another singing from the coppice in Rede Wood on 16/1. As its name suggests, this bird is one of our greatest songsters, often belting out its unpredictable tune from a deep thicket. A declining bird it is still common enough, and are mainly found within a dense patch of scrub.
The Suffolk Punch Field
On 11/2 the first SKYLARKS began to sing, the birds rising high over the arable fields with their intricate and varied song. The arable fields on the Patch still hold a strong population of this bird. Also on the same date in the Suffolk Punch Field the lonely BUZZARD which spends the whole year around this field on its own, was joined by its mate, to hopefully settle down to breed and raise more young buzzards.
SNOWDROP
Another sign of Spring was the emergence of flowers with the first SNOWDROPS appearing in the wooded areas in January, followed by yellow WINTER ACONITE by Rise Hall and DOGS MERCURY in Rede Wood in February. The emergence of BLACKTHORN, our first flowering shrub, is always an indicator of the upcoming Spring. This year the first appearance of the delicate white flowers happened very early, in the end of February, they usually appear in the second week of March. DAFFODILS too began to appear in late February, growing particularly strongly in the graveyard surrounding the church.
DAFFODIL
Also on the 26/2 the first BUTTERFLY of the Spring was seen when a SMALL TORTOISESHELL was in flight along Fisk's Lane. Come mid March it would be joined by other species when the year warms up.
There is a flock of FERAL PIGEON along Old Norwich Road
Even the most unlikely of places can still abound in nature. In no other place do I know the changing of the seasons and the wildlife, as well as I do on the Patch. A place as unpromising as an area of agricultural and equestrian fields with their attendant hedgerows doesn't look too good on the surface. But our countryside, no matter how unfriendly to nature, is still a wild place and here the wildlife can still cling on, if only by their finger tips.
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