• Brampton winter: Fieldfares & Redwings

    The hedgerow berries, such as Hawthorn,  have been bountiful this year. But The winter thrushes, the Redwings and Fieldfares, wait until the sharpest frosts of December have passed before they feed upon them. This morning, the 16th December, was the key date for this year’s feast. Numerous scattered flocks roll and flutter from bush to bush ahead of us as we walk along the old railway line. Their calls, a strange mixed chorus of the Fieldfares’ ‘chock-chook’ calls and their Redwings’ weaker ‘seeep’, surround us during their frenzy of feeding.

    ‘The next week, the Hawthorns are stripped. All but the outermost berries  have been taken.

  • Brampton: Autumn and the Michaelmas arrivals

    Over the last few days the evening has arrived with golden sunset. It feels like a time of change – the last Swallows skimmed the last stubble of the harvest a few days ago, before heading south. The autumn migrants have arrived from the north.

    It was last Wednesday evening, whilst accompanied by a post-hopping Barn Owl, that we heard this year’s Golden Plover. Their plaintive whistling calls carry to us, above even the traffic noise along the Buxton Road. It was twilight, the sunset had been spectacular and darkness was falling fast. Every year flocks of Golden Plover rest for a few days on tawny arable fields above the old Roman Road. We could hear their calls but their restless flocks were invisible.

    This morning’s clear skies, after a light frost, rendered the chance of seeing them altogether better. Looking south we soon spotted the flock of about fifty birds, their silhouette unmistakable – on knife-shaped wings they wheeled and turned, in synchrony their colours alternating dark and pale as they flew. Flying for fun, circling and settling before setting off again. All the time their whistles carrying down to us, earthbound.

  • Brampton Summer: the arrival of the Hobby Falcon

    The combination of speed, grace and agility make any glimpse of this
    small falcon an exhilarating one. Hobbys are summer visitors to the
    parish. Every year, when I see one, I tend to get over-excited about it.
    For obvious reasons small birds, their prey species, would not agree. This
    wariness manifests itself in the almost perceptible electric tension in the air as the
    Hobby appears – bird song stops and are replaced by their alarm calls as they
    dive for cover. This morning’s target – a Meadow Pipit on the Common
    – was lucky, quickly diving for cover and safety.

  • Brampton Spring 2018: Cuckoo

    After what seemed like a very long wait, the Cuckoo has arrived in the valley. Announcing its arrival with a rapid succession of calls at 4.50am from a perch on a tree somewhere along the Bure.

    For many years the Cuckoo has arrived in the last week in April. The delay this year due to the cold spring that we have had. Last year it was not heard until 25th May, so we could count this one at least as “earlier than last year”.  The British Trust for Ornithology tracks transmitter tagged Cuckoos every year, these can be seen via the following weblink;  https://www.bto.org/science/migration/tracking-studies/cuckoo-tracking

     

  • Brampton: Autumn update

    So far a dry and mild Autumn in the village has meant that most of the trees have retained their leaves. The Field Maple leaves started to turn yellow in mid October but most have yet to fall. The Poplars, which never do things by halves, have dropped all but a few isolated leaves and as a result Keeper’s Wood has taken on it’s Winter profile.

    I hear the weak call of the Redwing, but as yet have not actually spotted any of the Winter visiting thrushes. A Common Sandpiper has joined the resident Egret at the Mill Pool. The Kingfisher can still be heard but the many young raised during this bountiful year have mostly dispersed. The occasional Cormornt passes through and I hope that it has a taste for Signal Crayfish rather than for our already depleted Bure fish stocks.

    The Roe Deer have gathered into small family groups. Their coats taking on their tawny Autumn colour, rather than that glowing orange-red of Summer, as they prepare for the colder season. The Muntjac galumph about in pairs – seemingly without fear they focus on the gardens and the allotment.

  • Brampton Spring: Swifts return

    Chilly and overcast weather conditions in early May seemed to delay the return of the Brampton Swifts. Elsewhere, mostly in southern England reports came in of the arrival of the Summer visitor, but it was not until the 10th May that the familiar sight and sound of Swifts returned to the village. Since then the warmer evenings have had the added excitement of a screaming, roller-coaster-ing flight of a dozen or more Swifts dashing above the rooftops.

    The sad fact is that, with each year and each house improvement their nest site choices are diminishing. We need a nest box building project.

  • Brampton Spring: a flock on the start the start of a journey north

    6DCDB21E-E520-4F76-8D1C-DBFDB12440D2A small flock of Golden Plover brighten up and otherwise nondescript morning. At first we nearly missed them as we walked along the old track, but then we noticed them; 26 Plover milling about quietly in a field of Winter Wheat. They took no notice of us – confident in their security. The light was too low for a decent photograph – I managed a grainy image that looks more like a watercolour than a photo (see above).

    A few low whistling calls came from them, but as we continued to walk on they gradually merged into the background and disappeared from view. I like to assume that they are simply stopping over on their Spring migration north, although they may have wintered here.

  • Brampton Autumn – the Golden horde

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  • Brampton Spring: the elusive Cuckoo

    Cuckoos are mysterious. It is in their nature. Since the first Brampton Cuckoo arrived and started calling on Easter Sunday, there has been a suspicious silence. In fact it was only very early this morning that I heard another Cuckoo calling and since then, nothing.

    This is however, so often the case. I am not convinced that it is purely down to a decline in Cuckoo numbers. In most years we still have a population. It may be that as a species they travel over large distances in order to find a mate and until this is completed they don’t settle – this does seem to be borne out by radio tracking data published by the British Trust for Ornithology. On their records Cuckoos travel widely before they home into the areas from which they originated (or so it seems).

    In any event, I watch, listen and wait.

  • Brampton Spring: Swifts return

    The return of Swifts to the village sky makes this a red letter day. News of their reappearance elsewhere in England was announced all over Twitter yesterday – I can’t quite fathom out why Gloucestershire should see them before we do in Norfolk, but that was how it appeared. Brampton Swifts waited until Ascencion day.

    Walking back from the polling station, having been notified by Bill, there they were a circling group of eight Swifts over the village houses. Their sharp calls cutting through the air. It was noticeable that there was a hatch of flies about at ground level, so no doubt their arrival was somehow timed. From experience they will circle no gather for a few days before starting to return to roof eve nest sites. Sadly these sites have become fewer over the years as cottage roofs are repaired and gaps sealed up – the Swifts are barred from their age old sites. There is a real need for more Swift nest boxes to be constructed and installed.

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