Category: Biology

UPDATE: 14 July 2021 – Simon Gillings spotted two cranes briefly at the Smithy Fen flooded field. Others have noted sandpipers and Ringed Plover raising chicks.

When it comes to local places to spot new and interesting birds, the first place you might try in this neck of the woods (as it were) are the various nature reserves we have within a few clicks. There are the RSPB reserves – Ouse Fen, Berry Fen, Fen Drayton, Fowlmere, Ouse Washes most of which I’ve mentioned on this site at least once in the last few years. Then there are the National Trust places like Anglesey Abbey and Wimpole Hall as well the likes of Wicken, Tubney, and Burwell Fen. Further afield there’s the Wetland Trust site at Welney and other fairly nearby RSPB reserves such as Lakenheath.

But, we also have a couple of very interesting birding sites in our village of Cottenham – Long Drove and Smithy Fen.

Long Drove stretches from the entrance at Beach Road all the way past the various farms, the back of the landfill site, several ponds, and on to the gravel works and then the Cambridge Gun Club. The drove itself is a public highway and most of those various spots are only observable from the road itself, nevertheless, there is often something to see in the fields, in the skies, and babbling about on the ponds.

Watch out for Common Buzzards and other raptors, including Kestrel and even Peregrine, small birds such as Linnets and Goldfinch, and plenty of gulls. For the gull aficionado (never seagull, by the way) there are often great flocks of mixed birds: Black-headed Gulls, Lesser Black-backed Gulls, Great Black-backed Gulls, Herring Gulls, Common Gulls (which are quite rare). Most winters and into the spring there are often some slightly less common gulls, such as Iceland, Caspian, and Yellow-legged gulls, which might even draw birders from wider afield. A couple of winters back there was a Hooded Crow (common in Scotland, but a rarity this far south).

Turning to Smithy Fen, however, the recent flooding of the paddocks at the bridge and the farmland adjacent to the Lode but beyond the travellers’ site has turned up a veritable mega list for local birdwatchers. None of the sightings are strictly ‘megas’, which is usually a term reserved for an incredibly rare bird. Nevertheless, several locals who send me sightings for my newsletter report have put together a list of birds one might not usually expect to see, but for those flooded paddocks and fields.

Among them: Yellow Wagtail, Grey Wagtail, White Wagtail (European version of the British Pied Wagtail), Water Pipit, Meadow Pipit, Sedge Warbler, Stonechat, Wheatear, Wigeon, Shelduck, Garganey, Green Sandpiper, Golden Plover, Snipe, Jack Snipe, Dunlin, Redshank, Greenshank, Wood Sandpiper, Whimbrel, Bar-tailed Godwit, Black-tailed Godwit, Ringed Plover, Little Ringed Plover, Sanderling, Avocet, Ruff, and Common Tern. In the Fen Reeves Wood a Nightingale was reportedly heard recently, but it apparently stayed only a day or two. And, another for the gull aficionados, Kumlein’s Gull, which brought in quite a few birders from off the patch to see this rarity.

UPDATE: 2021-05-15 – Two Temminck’s Stints on the flooded field seen by local birder Brendan today. RSPB website describes this as a formerly breeding species with just 100 or so seen each year on migratory passage.

UPDATE: 2021-05-17 – Glossy Ibis has now been seen on that flooded field.

UPDATE: 20121-05-20 – Little Stint joins the one remaining Temminck’s

Yet to be noted are Common Sandpiper, Curlew, Turnstone, Spotted Redshank, Little Stint, Curlew Sandpiper…and then the rarities.

A Nuthatch (possibly the first in modern birding memory) turned up for a few days in the trees around All Saints Church and the gardens thereabouts. A couple of Turtle Doves are back as are Whitethroats, and Lesser Whitethroats along Church Lane.

Speaking of Turtle Doves…

A community conservation officer for the Wildlife Trust for Cambridgeshire recently set-up a small project, following guidance from the RSPB Operation Turtle Dove project to provide supplementary feeding for Turtle Doves in South Cambridgeshire.

He contacted me in December 2020 having got wind of the half a dozen or so turtle doves we’d had in Cottenham in the summer.

Anyway, he was hoping to speak to local landowners on the patches where TDs had been seen, so I spoke to a couple of those I know. And, one of them was happy to discuss further. He met up a few weeks ago and seed has been scattered at the margin of the field and extra bags left with local residents to dispense. The idea as I understand it is actually to encourage pigeons to feed in places where TDs have been sighted and so give the TDs the confidence to feed there too and hopefully then to feel safe and so breed.

One TD was heard and seen in our village two weeks ago, a second one has joined it and both were seen feeding on the margin. I saw them on the wires today but they flew off towards the church after I’d done the initial photoshoot before I got closeups. This shot was taken from about 200 metres away.

Incidentally, if you’re a local and would like to be in on the local sightings as they happen I have a Google Group – Wild Fen Edge – which might be of interest, drop me a line on the sciencebase email address (db@) and we can discuss getting you in the Group.

I’ve driven past Berry Fen, which lies betwixt the fenland villages of Earith and Bluntisham, dozens of times in my 30+ years in Cambridgeshire. Often when visiting friends out in the sticks but in more recent years, it’s usually been on a trip to the Needingworth side of RSPB Ouse Fen. Well, yesterday a fellow twitter user posted photos of an intriguing wader species that has turned up in the fens – Ruff, Tringa pugnax – so I thought I’d pay the site a visit, he kindly gave me the exact coordinate where he’d observed the birds.

There were two or three Ruff, several courting Lapwings, a Black-tailed Godwit, Redshank, Grey Heron, Little Egret, Moorhen, Mallard, Coot. To be heard in the trees and reeds flanking the flood: Willow Warbler, Cetti’s Warbler, Reed Warbler, Reed Bunting, Whitethroat etc. Oh and my first couple of Common Terns of the year.

Nice patch to visit on a sunny day. You can also take a detour from here to the larger lake at the north end of RSPB Ouse Fen or head for Brownshill Staunch and cross the Great River Ouse to get to the Reedbed Trail of that same reserve where you might catch a glimpse of Bearded Reedling.

As many regular visitors to the site will know periodically I poster “hyper local” information about wildlife on our patch, it’s mainly birds. This is often connected to the nature column I write for our village newsletter.

There has been, for many years, a mailing list associated with that column, which I took over from local birder Jasper Kay a few years back. The ad hoc mailing list has now morphed into the Wild Fen Edge Google Group. It’s a private group, you’re on our patch and wish to join, please drop me a line and I’ll add you.

One member of the group, Ian, has created a map of 24 very local spots where you might see any of dozens of bird species and other wildlife. There are various colloquial names for some of these places, but he’s used the official map name and pinned it to the map, so references to those places in our discussions can be standardised. A complete “tick” list for the patch will be forthcoming soon.

You can email a request to join the Group to WildFenEdge @GoogleGroups.com. There are no obligations to post or share sightings if you join, only obligation is to be civil in any correspondence and to not reveal precise locations of any listed or endangered species.

UPDATE: Sunny Sunday, so went to take some brighter photos, thankfully he was still there and calling loudly.

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.

The frozen circle of a Whooper’s life

Video by Grant Norman

Words, narration, and incidental music by David Bradley

Each winter, they arrive in their thousands. White, winter visitors flying in from the frozen north. Most will have come from their breeding grounds in Iceland. They navigation the east coast and sight land in North Norfolk. They will keep flying to their usual splashing grounds at Welney. The Whooper Swan.

The vast squadrons roost overnight on the waters, safe from foxes and other landlocked predators. When dawn breaks, they head for the fields. Where they will hoover up the green-top residues of beet and potato harvests. Before returning to their watery roosts each dusk.

In late 2020, the farmland around Welney and the Ouse Washes were floodier and floodier. The Whoopers were compelled to spread their wings and search farther afield. However, by January almost as soon as Fen Bridge Farm had harvested their sugarbeet. Several dozen arrived. The numbers have grown and grown.

Everyone in the village is asking everyone else about the honking and whooping. Is it geese? What are those birds? It’s amazing to see when you catch sight of them from the Lode or Les King Wood. By the end of January, almost 500 were on the flooded field there. Most of the greentops seem to have been purged from the land.They will most likely soon move on…to “pastures” new, although it’s worth noting that some are not even flying to roost these last two or three evenings, preferring to stay on the flooded farm at the edge of Cottenham.

We will have to wait and see whether they return to our Fen Edge Patch next winter. It will all depend on the flooding and the farming. Before the spring arrives though, this year’s birds will depart. Heading back to the frozen north for the next round in the circle of a Whooper’s life.

 

UPDATE: Numbers have been falling over the last few days. There were only four Whoopers on the frozen flood patch at the farm when we walked past today. They bobbed their heads and took flight as we walked past. Be interesting to know whether that’s the end of them on our fen edge patch for this year. It could well be…

TL:DR – We had a large influx of Whooper Swans on the outskirts of Cottenham early in 2021. The spectacle has not been repeated since but there are numerous birds of that species farther afield and several Bewick’s Swans sighted.

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UPDATE: January 2022 – Several hundred Whoopers arrived on Bullock’s Haste and out on Setchel Fen. I should add that fellow villager Ian Ellis undertook a detailed study of bird species on the flood at Smithy Fen and recorded well over 150 different species. Many of the species he recorded are not commonly seen in these parts.

December 2021 – WWT Welney wardens counting well over 13000 roosting Whoopers on their patch.

Back in November 2020, I noticed quite a lot of swans, Whooper Swans to be precise, pecking and calling on the farmland between the River Great Ouse and the fenland north of our village, Cottenham. Those numbers have gone up substantially in the last week or so. (Update: 2021-01-31 – 500 swans)

One birding friend Ian counted 500+ on a trek along one of the droves to observe them, and he reported back again today that he estimates there are perhaps 800 spread across two or three sites north of our village. Moreover, reports from elsewhere around Cambridge hint at four-figure numbers of the birds on our patch, he says.

Another friend, Chris pointed out that he was being kept awake by honking calls from behind the Tenison Manor Estate, locally referred to as “The Birds” because the street names are bird names. Turns out it’s Whooper Swans (Cygnus cygnus) there too, between the Cottenham Lode, The Cut, and the Les King Wood, perhaps fifty or so. The numbers may swell as the winter moves on.

If you’ve ever visited WWT Welney* in Norfolk, you may well be familiar with the Whooper Swan. They’re a big white bird, with a black and yellow bill, but they lack the bobble on the bill of the more frequently seen Mute Swan (Cygnus olor). The Whoopers head south from their summer breeding grounds in Iceland to find food and shelter. Welney welcomes thousands of winter visitors, including Whoopers and their relative Bewick’s Swan (Cygnus columbianus bewickii) each winter. Apparently, this season, there is so much flooding and food on farmland, that very few swans are showing at feeding time at Welney. The “w” is silent in whooper by the way, viz whooping cough, so it’s pronounced “hooper”, in case you were wondering. It’s not silent in WWT Welney.

Regardless of which field you spot the Whoopers on, they fly to roost each evening. They head north to open water, the washes, for instance, possibly even Welney itself, Ian tells me.

You might also notice that scientific name, the binomial, of the Whooper – Cygnus cygnus. This is another tautonym, the repetition of the genus in the specific (species) name indicates that the Whoopers are the  “type” of the swan genus, the archetypal swan, just as Buteo buteo, the Common Buzzard, is the archetypal buzzard and Gorilla gorilla gorilla, the Western Lowland Gorilla is the archetypal gorilla.

There are lots of flooded fields around us that have also attracted Teal, Gadwall, Pochard, Wigeon, Goosander, Shoveller Ducks, and others, birds that we do not commonly see on the farmland around our village. Other birds to watch out for feeding in the fields and hedgerows – the winter thrushes: Fieldfare and Redwing. You will also see Corn Bunting and Reed Bunting, Yellowhammer, and Meadow Pipit. These are here all year. So too, Linnet, Goldfinch, and Greenfinch which are flocking around the outskirts of the village groups of several dozen depending on where you go for your allowed daily exercise.

Also to be seen: male and female Stonechat (usually in pairs). You might also see small gatherings of Pied Wagtails around farmland wet patches and on dung heaps. You might even spot the yellow rump of its relative the Grey Wagtail, but you most likely won’t see a Yellow Wagtail just yet, they’re summer visitors. But, do keep your eyes peeled for the European relative of the Pied Wagtail, the White Wagtail, which seems to be turning up more frequently now. At the time of writing, Water Pipit were not on the village list, but birders have seen them since.

Also, given the flooding and the growing number of Glossy Ibis around Cambridgeshire at the moment, it would great news to hear of one on the Fen Edge Patch, do let me know if you see this rather exotic visitor within walking distance.

Having bumped into friends while owl spotting in the fens, we pointed out a male Little Owl on a woodpile at Priory Farm near Burwell. After our friends had moved on, however, Mrs Sciencebase spotted a second owl (a female). The female is in the darker photo, on the higher perch (a bigger bird than the male as is usual with owls and raptors).

We didn’t see any Short-eared Owls on NT Burwell Fen nor Tubney Fen today, unfortunately, although one or two have been seen this winter there hunting in the early afternoon as opposed to the more likely hour or two before sunset.

There are it seems half a dozen Shorties hunting at Great Fen in Huntingdonshire. Interestingly, there are theories about the lack of Shorties when that happens. One suggests that the birds only head south from Scandinavia if the lemming populations up there are low. However, the half a dozen in Huntingdonshire suggests that more likely is that the presence of the Konik ponies on Burwell Fen over the summer has left the scrub grazed too heavily giving the owls no choice but to find an area with longer scrub in which to roost. Add to that the lack of hunting Kestrels there recently which suggests that the vole population has pulled back its breeding to reduce predation this summer, something that prey species are known to do as it then temporarily reduces breeding success of the predators giving the prey species a better chance in the next season. This seems to happen on a three-year cycle.

We headed back to NT Wicken Fen visitor centre having been tipped off to a sunset roost of Hen Harriers (a couple of proper birders confirmed that some of the harriers we were watching were three male Hen Harriers quite a significant time before sunset, there were also several Marsh Harriers, and a couple of Barn Owls hunting over the reeds.

UPDATE: Thursday, 7th Jan 2020, on a walk, we inadvertently flushed a Short-eared Owl from its scrubby roost in the nature reserve behind a research park north of Cambridge. It flew into an adjacent field to watch us for a few minutes before taking flight.