4 of us met at the village hall at 4.45a.m. for a walk over Chapel Lane and along New Road, before strolling across the golf course and then down to the River Ash before a walk back along the Ridge footpath and down Ford Hill back to the village.
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| First light |
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| near Chapel Lane heading to New Road |
Undoubted highlight was discovering 2 pairs of presumed breeding lapwing. We had encountered a pair on the previous dawn chorus walk and they were still present whilst a 2nd pair was a great find. These are the first breeding records since I started recording all the Natural History of the parish, and, in fact, only my 5th record of lapwing since 2007.
One pair were clearly courtship flying and seeing off a carrion crow, which may indicate eggs in the ground built nest. I shall have to keep a check on these 2 pairs to see if they produce any fledged youngsters.
Other good birds were a distant cuckoo towards Much Hadham, several yellowhammer, blackcap and whitethroats. Although it was warm early on, no buzzards or kites were noted at all.
Species list: seen and/or heard.
mandarin, pheasant, lapwing, wood pigeon, collared dove, cuckoo, green woodpecker, great spotted woodpecker, skylark, pied wagtail, wren, dunnock, robin, song thrush, blackbird, blackcap, whitethroat, chiffchaff, great tit, blue tit, magpie, jackdaw, rook, carrion crow, starling, house sparrow, chaffinch, linnet, goldfinch, greenfinch, yellowhammer
A welcome coffee was taken at Ash Valley Golf Club, and all in all, a most successful morning, with good company and some good views of birds.
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| chaffinch |
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| lapwing |
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| same bird |
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| robin |
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