One advantage of talking to yourself is that you know at least someone is listening - Franklin P Jones
Mary was keen to repeat the bird breeding surveys we carried out in 2024 and 2025; and I was happy to help. Our previous access to the prescribed BTO route (parking in a lane before crossing a large crop field over poorly maintained stiles) had become increasingly difficult. We had met someone on an earlier survey who suggested an alternative place to park and start the walk. This where we headed for our initial reconnaissance visit on the 2nd May 2026. We met the farmer and he was happy for us to park at the farm entrance before commencing our walk.
It was not long before we saw our obligatory hare (see previous visits in 2024 & 2025) ...
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| Photo 1: Obligatory Hare (2/5/26) |
... before continuing our recce making a note of the ground cover (e.g. crop field, wood, hedges, farm buildings, pond) on either side of the route. The first part of the route largely comprised grassland on one side (where we saw three hares including a young one) and crop fields on the other.
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| Photo 2: Rapeseed Crop along the BTO Route (2nd May 2026) |
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| Photo 3: Bare Fields Sown or Ready to be Sown? (2nd May 2026) |
There were quite a lot of bare fields (Photo 3) that had probably been seeded but with what? Woodland, farmyard and buildings, etc and a large pond were the other main features of the whole route.
When doing a bird survey, I use the Merlin bird app to pre-identify birdsong and provide an indication of which species are around. However, for the official BTO bird count, Mary's ears and eyes are the only 'instruments' allowed to confirm a sighting. During our recce visit, the Merlin app picked up only 11 bird species (Blackbird, Blackcap, Blue Tit, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Dunnock, Great Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Robin, Wren, Whitethoat) and the numbers were not great though we didn't go as far as the woodland area. We were hoping this was mainly down to the time of day (noon to 3 pm); the official bird count would be between 7 am and 9 am.
As we headed back to the car, stopping briefly to admire the hares one final time ...
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| Photo 4: Photogenic Hare (2nd May 2026) |
We returned for the first (of two) bird counts on the 16th May. The full bird count is fairly complicated as you have to note the land-type (identified from the recce), species and number of birds, whether flying or not and how far from the path. A simple count of the number and species is set out in the table below. A zero indicates a species previously identified at this site but not on the 2026 count.
Of the 43 species identified on previous visits (including by other BTO observers), we only saw or heard twenty-six. This could be due to a number of factors including the fact that we (and by that I mean Mary) might be less skilled in identifying bird sounds and sightings. Some of it will be down to luck or weather (it was overcast on the day of the count) or, perhaps, the absence of bird-friendly crops. We'd rather not contemplate the worst scenario: that farmland birds are in decline. We will have to await the full BTO survey to see if this is the case.
We did solve the mystery of the bare fields; they had been planted with maize but the plants were only a few inches high when we did the official count. So not at all bird-friendly.
We didn't spot any hares on our second visit.
The Merlin Bird ID app worked pretty well although it did throw the odd curve ball. On the recce visit (2nd May) it 'identified' the common sandpiper (unlikely). On the official visit (16th May), the app also 'identified' the following: Willow Warbler, Mistle Thrush, and Curlew. Mary could not confirm any of these so they were not included in the official BTO count. Of the three 'ghost' birds, only the willow warbler had been 'sighted' previously at this sight.
We saw relatively few butterflies on our official visit (16th May); probably a little early in the day. There were certainly more on the recce visit (2nd May) which was both warmer and sunnier. There were lots of Orange-tip Butterflies around genreally; this male seemed to be 'courting' a Small White Butterfly who wasn't the least bit interested!
Video 1: Confused Orange-tip Butterfly 'courting' a Small White Butterfly?
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