Smithy Fen Birding

Over the last year or more, a patch of farmland known, as Bullock’s Haste, which lies on the outskirts of our village has been perpetually flooded. Incredibly, over two winters it has attracted a greater and greater diversity of bird species who have spent time there feeding, preening, and roosting. Two friends dedicated to the citizen science cause of birding (Brendan Doe and Ian Ellis) have observed and catalogued (on eBird) more than 150 species there in that time. I cannot claim to have seen even a fraction of that number there, although I have seen a good many of the “ticked” species in various other places and several of them at this site. There are a few other named spotters on the list who have ticked several species, but Doe and Ellis have done the bulk of this excellent work. Here’s the list as it stands, in alphabetical order. I have removed terms such as Eurasian, European, Northern, and Western from these vernacular names to simplify things. You can visit the eBird list to get alternative formats. As you will see, there are a few fairly rare and unusual visitors on the list: Arctic Tern Barn Owl Barn Swallow Bewick’s Swan Blackbird Blackcap Black-headed Gull Black-tailed Godwit Blue Tit Brambling Bullfinch Buzzard Canada Goose Carrion Crow Caspian Gull Cetti’s Warbler Chaffinch Chiffchaff Coal Tit Collared Dove Coot Corn Bunting Cuckoo Curlew Curlew Sandpiper Dunlin Dunnock Egyptian Goose Fieldfare Gadwall Garden Warbler Garga...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Birds Source Type: blogs