30
BIRD GROUP - THORNDON PARK, 15th JUNE, 1982
With a variety of habitats ranging from mature wood
and parkland to grassland and open ponds, Thorndon
Park always offers good birdwatching. But with
the dense foliage of early summer, 'watching' is
often better described as 'listening' - for the 15
members who met, there was a fascinating tangle of
song to unravel as we walked round the northern park
from near the lion gate via the open parkland through
the woods to the western ponds and back.
The old oaks of the parkland were ideal for group
birdwatching, since they offered a small area to
watch with a swathe of grass around them. Green-
finches trilled from the upper branches with chirping
tree and house sparrows, while the hole-nesting jackdaws,
stockdoves and starlings flew lower down. In the
denser woodland, it was much more a case of glimpsing
and listening - spotted flycatchers were the easiest
to see because of their short feeding flights which
return them to the same or a nearby perch. A tawny
owl, often seen where thrushes and tits scold
furiously in woodland, was seen looking down rather
angrily between bunches of ash leaves. Blackcaps
and garden warblers were singing well, which allowed
for comparisons between their frequently confused
songs. In complete contrast, willow warblers and
Chiffchaffs which are so easy to confuse by sight
have unmistakeably different songs.
The stage of the weather was more typical of spring
or autumn, but the parties of young great tits, blue
tits and three very young coots confirmed that it was,
in fact, summer. A total of 43 species was recorded
which seemed disappointingly low when compared with
the earlier Hatfield Forest visit.
Chris Shennan