Birding on the Fen Edge

Over the last few weeks, the flooded fields around our village of Cottenham have brought in quite a few interesting birds we’d not commonly see here, although some are more frequent visitors than others.
We’ve had hundreds of Whooper Swans and a couple of Bewick’s Swans (for the first time in recent years), Red Shank, Oystercatcher*, Little Ringed Plover, Grey Plover, Golden Plover*, Green Plover* (Lapwing/Peewit), Shoveller Duck, Shelduck, Wigeon, Green Sandpiper*, Kumlein’s Gull, Avocet, Dunlin, Black-tailed Godwit, Snipe, Grey Wagtail*, Yellow Wagtail, White Wagtail, Pied Wagtail*, and various others. *Seen more than the others listed. Hen Harrier, Peregrine falcon, and Marsh Harrier have also been spotted, as has (away from our patch) White-tailed Eagle.

Today, well away from the flooded fields, a Nuthatch turned up at All Saints Church and was singly loudly variously from the yew tree at the main entrance, the trees at the vicarage, and the tall, budding oak behind the church.

As far as I am aware, this is the first sighting of a nuthatch in Cottenham for many, many years. Unless you know different, of course.

Thanks to Simon G, Brendan D, and Ian E who are the proper birders who first ticked and counted the various birds listed above.

Song frequency sits mainly between about 2.8 and 4 kHz, another bird calling at 7kHz towards the end of the video. A high-pass filter applied at about 1.3 kHz to mute wind and traffic noise.

Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - April 10, 2021 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Birds Source Type: blogs