Monday November 16 - Spotter Sheet debut - Morgrove Coppice

 Although my Morton Bagot patch is largely on HOEF (Heart of England Forest) land, it also comprises areas they do not own, and they have not built any car-parks here to service the good dog-walkers of Redditch, so I pretty much carry on birding as I did before they formed.

However, I do appreciate that where they have located car-parks, they have created a wonderful wildlife-friendly amenity. Earlier this year I paid my subs and joined as a volunteer. Naturally I was keen to avoid any hard manual labour, like planting trees, what a wimp, but when they came up with the idea of volunteers completing Spotter Sheets for land accessible from one of their car-parks, I jumped at the chance of joining in. It was something I could do without unduly troubling my ailing muscles.

The idea seemed simple enough. I was to go to a wood, I chose Morgrove Coppice as I was familiar with it, and record everything I see. Everything? I quickly decided to ignore the plant kingdom on the grounds that I only have a tenuous knowledge of plant identification, and if they didn't know that Larch, Scots Pine, Birch, Oak, Hazel, and Bramble was there in proliferation there was no hope for them.

Insects seemed absent (it was a morning visit), and I didn't see any mammals other than humans and dogs. That just left birds, which by a happy accident is what I do.

I had two options; the accessible path Lyn and I know well, or the Wild Walk which would take me up into Spernal Park. I picked the former, and set about recording.

A couple of hours later I was back at the car looking at my 30th (and best) sighting, a female Stonechat.

Stonechat - A Morgrove Coppice tick, no less

Prior to this find I had been entertained by a singing Song Thrush, a tit flock containing numerous Goldcrests and a few Nuthatches, Treecreepers, Coal Tits, and a Marsh Tit, and a few fly-over finches, the best of which was a Brambling. Actually that may have been calling from trees, but I couldn't see it anyway. At least 23 Redwings was probably an underestimate of the numbers in the wood.

All I then had to do was go home and email my sightings to HOEF. Easy-peasy. 

The continuing mild weather encouraged me to put the moth-trap out. My neighbour's wasps seem undaunted by the approaching winter and were well-represented around the trap this morning. Moths, on the other hand, weren't. I could only find two; a Ruddy Streak (common and boring), and a Red-green Carpet. 

Red-green Carpet

Quite an attractive late autumn moth, this was my fifth this year.