Today I was keen to visit another "new" square kilometre within my wider patch. I chose Rowney Green, a little village just north of Redditch. Actually, I had a slight ulterior motive because I tacked on a wander to a part of Lower Park Farm where, in January 2022, I had seen some Grey Partridges. That part of the plan proved a complete flop because the Pheasant cover where I had flushed the birds was no longer there, and neither were any Partridges.
Anyway, walking up the road to Rowney Green felt like breaking new ground. But was it really? When I came to report my sightings to Birdtrack, I found I had been there several times in spring 1997 (I should say that over the course of about four years I added all my written records back to 1979 onto Birdtrack).
Several species present in 1997 were emphatically not there now. Willow Tit, Tree Sparrow, Curlew, Yellowhammer, and Lapwing are now respectively extinct, extinct, probably extinct, possibly extinct, and probably scarce at Rowney Green. To be fair I'm not certain whether the 1997 visit covered exactly the same area, and in fact I'm pretty sure I hadn't been to the Worcestershire Wildlife Trust reserve known as Newbourne Hill Wood.
On the flip side I did see Raven today and rather more impressively, twice heard a Common Crossbill which circled me above the conifers in Newbourne Wood.
Luckily, many common birds remain common.
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| Mistle Thrush |
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| Robin |
Newbourne Wood looked great, a mixture of Larch, Scots Pine, Spruce, Holly, and Birch, home to plenty of Goldcrests and Coal Tits, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if Crossbills are regular there in years when their population levels are high.
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