Out on the Common

I had decided that a birdwatching walk around Galleywood Common was undoubtedly overdue, so I set my alarm to get up at 5am this morning and had an early(ish) night. I left before 6am and set of for the two mile walk there. The walk was pretty quiet, a few early Robins, Tits and Blackbirds along the way, some woodpigeons in the meadows and a brief glimpse of, I think, a Sparrowhawk. I reached St Michaels church about twenty past six, still early but quite light under an overcast sky. I sat on a bench in the churchyard and waited for any developments. I could see rabbits on the old racecourse just outside the church grounds and some squirrels feeding amongst the tombstones. Suddenly a female Sparrowhawk flew down and tried to attack one of the squirrels, beating it's wings as it tried to work out how to attack but then flying off into the surrounding trees, leaving the squirrel to dash off into the undergrowth. It was all over in seconds and I was amazed that the hawk attempted to take such a large mammal, although it could have been an inexperienced young bird.

I left the church and walked through the woods, winding my way around and just exploring the tracks that crisscross the woodland here. I came out on the grass next to Margaretting Road, lots of rabbits here. I walked along the edge of the wood to the heath and paused to watch some Tits flying around between the trees then noticed a Greater Spotted Woodpecker in one of the trees tapping away on a branch. As I moved around slowly to get a better angle I saw two more birds fly into the tree and refocusing I saw a fairly plain greyish bird, rather Robin-like with darkish legs and a dark-tipped bill. It was definitely not a bird I'd seen before and it looked rather like a Flycatcher, but I had no idea if those were found in this part of the country. As I pondered if I would be able to get my camera from my backpack the bird started looking a little agitated so I tried to memorise it as well as possible and then it flew off across the heath to the other woods. I checked my field guides when I got home and searched for images of Flycatchers and any other similar birds on t'internet and am fairly sure that they were Spotted Flycatchers after finding some images showing similar bill colouring and indistinct spots and talking to my brother about them.

I walked on through the heath and through the woods to the south, lots of fungi around and Robins singing and piping out their alarm calls amongst the trees, Green Woodpeckers yaffling in the canopy somewhere. I crossed the remains of the Napoleonic defences near a carpark and followed an overgrown trackway until I eventually came upon a clearing close to the Stock Road where a large dragonfly was patrolling, too fast and erratic in flight for me to get a close look to hazard a species, but my impression was that of a Migrant Hawker or something similar. Carrying on along the track I passed a large pond, little more than a boggy hole at the moment, a family of Moorhens looking for food amongst the mud. I watched a Dunnock searching for morsels of food under the bracken nearby then headed across the grassy sward to the narrow wooded strip on the western side of the common where a little road was found.

I followed the road to a trackway that ran west between a garden and an area of slightly more open woodland, where I stopped to watch another flock of Great, Blue and Long-tailed Tits. The Warden of the Common reserve was passing and stopped to chat for a minute before hurrying off to church and I turned west down a little track and then at the bottom struck north into the woods, across London Hill and then into the woods again along a small track that led around Mill Hill but was clearly very little used as it was terribly overgrown and a large bough blocked the path at one point - I needed to drop down to my knees to squirm underneath it. After a while I came to a rough bench, clearly a spot favoured by the local kids judging by the scrawls on the wood, where I stopped for a peaceful moments rest... until an unnoticed Green Woodpecker on a tree right behind me launched into an explosive yaffle that gave me quite a shock and I spun round and scared off the bird, which had been amazingly close! I headed out across the road to the heath and after wandering around a little headed back to St Michaels Church and from there up Watchhouse Road and Brook Lane to the south end of the bridleway that leads to Vicarage Lane in Great Baddow.

Along the bridleway I saw and heard lots more tits, and at the east side horse paddock I watched a large group of Swallows feeding on the wing, possibly gathering in preparation for the flight south. Just north of there I found a big dragonfly patrolling a section of path, another Hawker but again I couldn't get a clear view of it to attempt an identification. I then found a Hazel beside the track, the ground covered in nut shells that were cracked in half or had a hole chiseled in one end. At the north end of the bridleway I found a Blackthorn covered in Sloes and nearby a baby Wren was skulking in the thicket, a gorgeous little thing still with the yellow gapes at the sides of its bill. I then packed away my binoculars and camera and tramped through Great Baddow and off home...

Blackthorn Sloes