Summer birds (and other fauna)
May-July 2021
We got off to a great start in May with a couple of dawn chorus walks in the Scrubs, starting in Martin Bell’s Wood as the early birds struck up their beautiful song – robins first, soon joined by wrens, blackbirds and song thrushes, whilst warblers such as blackcaps and chiffchaffs seemingly had a bit of a lie-in, later followed by linnets, greenfinches and whitethroats. Hundreds of ring-necked parakeets were busy stripping the buds from the wych elms in Scrubs lane woods. The early birdwatchers also often catch the proverbial worm: it was a dawn chorus walk by Barbara, Emma and Robert that flushed a beautiful northern wheatear near the path across the grassland on 9 May.
Wonderful world of warblers
May also marked the arrival of many more Warblers to the Scrubs. David Jeffreys reported two lesser whitethroats on 1 May, and most Scrubs visitors had regular sightings of one and sometimes two in the scrub at the corner of the model aircraft zone closest to the HS2 fencing throughout the month of May. Through the magic of Paul’s long camera lens, it was revealed that one of the lesser whitethroats was also ringed. They became more elusive and fell silent again in June, hopefully because they were nesting peacefully. Common whitethroats remained plentiful across all bramble patches and the meadow, doing their delightful, scratchy song flights, and later seen with nesting material. By June, adults were spotted bringing food material, and downy, rounded juvenile whitethroats appeared, and July saw plenty of juveniles, and there are still a few around in August. Blackcaps and chiffchaffs continued to sing heartily from most of the woodlands and meadow scrub during the summer days, and still plenty of blackcaps are around.
The big excitement of May came on 7 May when Paul, Barbara and Helen recorded a grasshopper warbler reeling in the eastern hedge of the meadow. Magnus later picked it up again a little further south in the same area. Notoriously elusive, no-one could see it ensconced deep in the hedging on that day, and we received no more reports of it after that. A sedge warbler was clearly heard (and recorded) by Barbara in the brambles half-way down the HS2 fencing on 9 May, and another was heard from the middle copse alongside the northern woods on 11 May, however they remained shy. Over in Little Wormwood Scrubs, Bill also reported a reed warbler on 13 May. So that takes our warbler tally for 2021 (including Francis’ willow warbler in April) to 8 different species.
Looking up
Magnus reported the first swifts of the summer on 7 May flying over the grasslands near the prison, and from that point onwards we had good sightings of swifts during June and July. Paul spotted a swallow flying low over the playing fields on 20 May.
On the raptor front, Barbara and Faye spied the first hobby of 2021 over the northwest corner of the woods just after 6pm on 4 June and Francis reported a second hobby at 6pm on 1 July. Magnus reported first a single then another four common buzzards flying north on 7 May. Further excitement when Angus watched over 40 crows attacking a rather bedraggled looking buzzard on 10 May, chasing it east and out of the Scrubs – apparently all the small birds in the meadow fell silent while the spectacle took place. We wondered whether the buzzard had tried to take one of the corvid chicks for dinner. A sparrowhawk was seen flying east along the embankment on 20 July. Our resident kestrel has been more elusive during the summer months, but a male kestrel carrying nesting material was reported near the pony centre on 9 May, and then Angus watched a beautiful large female circling the south east corner of the meadow and central copse on 19 July. Barbara also witnessed a dispute between a kestrel and three crows along the edge of the playing fields and northern woods on 5 August.
Other overhead sightings included a cormorant on 28 May plus another on 2 July, an Egyptian goose on 5 May, Laura spied a pair of Greylag geese and a pair of mallards on 24 May, whilst Paul had previously picked up a female mallard on 20 May. Oliver spied a grey heron flying over on 8 May, and Charlie reported another on 4 August. Herring gulls, black-headed, lesser black-backed gulls are all fairly regular sightings.
We have had a big influx of goldfinches in late July and early August, large flocks of anything up to 90+ (according to Sophie’s count on 5 August), moving in smaller groups amongst the trees and bushes are being seen right now.
More breeding success
Every year we have great spotted woodpeckers nesting at the Scrubs, and 2021 has been no exception despite the disruption in the northwest corner. We discovered one of the woodpecker nests in the northern woods on 22 May, with adults coming to feed their loudly calling youngsters. By 1 June the nesting tree was silent, but lo and behold, a juvenile woodpecker – recently fledged – was now calling from a nearby tree. Juvenile ‘great spots’ (or GSWs) were seen and heard regularly in June and into July. Green woodpeckers are not commonly seen at the Scrubs, but one was heard yaffling from the central copse on 12 May and then again from the trees near the hospital.
Linnets are a red-listed species in the UK, but we are fortunate to have several breeding pairs of these lovely finches at the Scrubs – 7 or 8 different pairs were reported on 25 May - mostly in the meadow and bramble areas along the fencing, and we watched them bringing nest material and food during this summer. It also seems to have been a good year for greenfinches, again plentiful throughout these months, and lots of juveniles were observed calling during July. House sparrows took over the brambles in the lower and middle end of the meadow, especially towards Braybrook Street, and again many juveniles appeared in June and July.
June and July are the time of fledglings and juveniles, which always causes confusion with ID! From chestnut freckly young robins to the muted plumage of juvenile linnets, chaffinches, greenfinches and house sparrows, wrens, dunnocks, blue, great and long-tailed tits, young blackbirds and song thrushes as well as all the young warblers and woodpeckers (above), we’ve enjoyed watching all the ‘juvies’ as they’ve fledged, called for food and started to learn their songs during these months. Barbara spotted a juvenile pied wagtail at the end of the path at the west end of the meadow on 22 June, whilst Emma and Faye had previously each spied an adult on 25 and 30 May respectively.
On a more sombre note, despite all the measures to protect the meadow which has been very much to the benefit of our breeding whitethroats, greenfinches, tits, dunnocks, song thrushes, wrens and linnets, as well as the common lizards we hope, it doesn’t appear that we’ve managed to reinstate the former breeding colony of meadow pipits in 2021. The birds we saw over winter and early spring seemed to have moved on to breed elsewhere. We hope to see meadow pipits return this autumn, and with the meadow now back in better condition, we can still hope for the future.
Beyond birds
As bird sightings became a little quieter in July and early August, attention of Scrubhubbers has turned to butterflies and other species. Jed Corbett sent us a lovely picture of a large skipper on 13 June. Marbled whites, gatekeepers, skippers and meadow brown butterflies became plentiful in the long grasses, thistles and meadow areas. On 16 June, Charlie reported speckled wood, meadow brown, small heath, red admiral, common blue, as well as Cinnabar moth, mother Shipton moth and two emperor dragonflies. On 26 July he returned and reported a total 10 species of butterfly: small white, marbled white, small skipper, large skipper, gatekeeper, ringlet, speckled wood, small tortoiseshell and small copper.
As well as a cricket, Francis enigmatically reported a poecilobothrus nobilitatus on 14 July along with a picture of flies in a muddy puddle. I must admit I turned to Google to see what he was talking about: known also as a semaphore fly it has a bright green thorax and preys on larvae and smaller insects in wetland areas.
Back on safer ground, Sophie spotted a whole family of foxes behind the HS2 fencing at the northwest end of the embankment, including cubs playing, and Charlie spotted two rabbits in the grassland on 4 August.
What to look for in August-September
August is typically fairly quiet, but we’re enjoying the very large influx of goldfinches at the moment. Some of our breeding birds such as whitethroats and linnets will start to leave us. However, mid-late August should bring in some new migrants, including warblers passing through. It’s a good time to start looking out for whinchats, possibly more wheatears. In previous years, August and September have seen spotted flycatchers, common redstarts and yellow wagtails passing through. Hirundines will be migrating south, so look to the skies for the last swifts and swallows of the summer, and also possibly small flocks of house martins and sand martins heading south. We hope to start seeing our meadow pipits back at the Scrubs in September too.
Barbara Crowther
6 August 2021
Thanks to the following for sharing their sightings in May-July/August: Paul Thomas, Magnus Andersson, Bill Haines, Laura Williamson, Emma Ransom, Francis O’Sullivan, David Jeffreys, Sophie Cogan, Laura Williamson, Angus Wilkinson, Charlie Farrell , Oliver Flory, Faye Thomas, Emma Ransom, Jed Collier.
If you’d like to join the ScrubHub, the WhatsApp group dedicated to sharing bird sightings at Wormwood Scrubs, the link to join is https://chat.whatsapp.com/LwFtlsE8fJaLPlV4KF0S2X