See also...
If you are interested in birds, you may also like to read what's on our Birds on Magog Down page.
Bird Club - come and join us!
If you have never given birdwatching a try do come along on the first Saturday of the month (meeting in the car park at 8am from April to October; slightly later at 8.30 am from November to March).
Membership is very informal–– just turn up and enjoy the birding walk. It is a healthy way of getting fresh air and exercise, and de-stressing while learning about birds.
We welcome new members of any age from beginners to life-time bird watchers. Sorry, no dogs
Photo: Skylark (Alauda arvensis) © Garth Peacock 2015
2015 Report of a long term survey of breeding birds on Magog Down Stapleford
Bryan Davies and Robin Cox, Cambridgeshire Bird Club
Summary
It now seems certain that willow warblers and probably the meadow pipits have been lost from breeding on the Down but Mistle thrush, Corn bunting and Grey partridge are still present albeit in very small numbers.
Two birds of prey, the Sparrowhawk and the Common Buzzard are probably starting to breed on the Down and the Lesser Whitethroat was recorded for the first time in several years. A special survey of breeding Skylarks was not undertaken in 2015 which probably accounts for the drop in numbers recorded compared with previous years.
Additional conservation measures introduced since 2014 are nest boxes (see Appendix), trees providing perches for singing birds and in May 2015 a 3 acre strip of bird seed sown in the arable area.
A tawny owl was seen at the owl box in the Shelter Belt but grey squirrels subsequently took over the box until recently when four squirrels were evicted. Similarly squirrels took over the kestrel box in the Clunch Pit and have been evicted twice. The bird seed strip attracted large numbers of linnets (50-100) during the winter and small numbers of reed buntings and yellowhammers.
This is the third report of a long term breeding bird survey on Magog Down using the revised field methods described in Appendix 1 of the 2012 Report.
Field Visits
Four recording visits were made in 2015 (14/4, 19/4, 2/5, 20/5) of about 2 hours following the same route on each occasion.
Results
See Tables1 and 2.
| Location | No. of species* |
No. of birds** |
|---|---|---|
| Car Park and Picnic area | 11 | 15 |
| Colin's Wood, Roadside, Garden hedges | 6 | 8 |
| Feoffee's Fields and edge of Parish Pit | 6 | 9 |
| Clunch Pits | 9 | 11 |
| Felled wood, shelter belt and Magog Wood | 8 | 11 |
| Sheep paddocks | 6 | 8 |
| Memorial Wood | 4 | 5 |
| Arable field | 4 | 5 |
| Vestey and adjacent mature wood | 8 | 12 |
| Western boundary hedge | 4 | 16 |
| Villedomer Wood | 3 | 3 |
| North Down | 8 | 10 |
** Minimum number breeding
| Family |
Total* |
Sites** | Bird Club*** |
UK Status**** |
| Thrushes | ||||
| Blackbird | 11 | 7 | ||
| Song Thrush | 1 | 1 | red | |
| Mistle Thrush | - | - | recorded | red |
| Robin | 9 | 5 | ||
| Tits | ||||
| Blue tit | 3 | 2 | ||
| Great tit | 3 | 3 | ||
| Long tailed tit | 5 | 1 | ||
| Finches | ||||
| Bullfinch | 0 | 0 | amber | |
| Chaffinch | 13 | 7 | ||
| Goldfinch | - | - | recorded | |
| Greenfinch | 2 | 2 | ||
| Linnet | 4 | 2 | red | |
| Buntings |
||||
| Corn bunting | - | - | recorded | red |
| Yellowhammer | 4 | 2 | red | |
| Warblers | ||||
| Blackcap | 9 | 7 | ||
| Chiffchaff | 3 | 3 | ||
| Common Whitethroat | 6 | 3 | ||
| Lesser Whitethroat | - | - | recorded | |
| Garden Warbler | 1 | 1 | ||
| Larks | ||||
| Skylark | 7 | 4 | red | |
| Crows | ||||
| Carrion Crow | 5 | 2 | ||
| Jay | 2 | 2 | ||
| Magpie | 6 | 5 | ||
| Crests and Wrens |
||||
| Wren | 3 | 3 | ||
| Accentors | ||||
| Dunnocks | 3 | 3 | ||
| Partridges | ||||
| Grey Partridge | - | - | recorded | red |
| Red-legged Partridge | - | - | ||
| Pheasant | 1 | 1 | ||
| Woodpeckers |
||||
| Great Spotted | 1 | 1 | ||
| Green | 2 | 2 | ||
| Pigeons and Doves | ||||
| Woodpigeon | [large numbers but not recorded] | |||
| Birds of Prey | ||||
| Buzzard | 1 | 1 | ||
| Kestrel | 1 | 1 | ||
| Sparrowhawk | 2 | 1 | ||
| Pipits and Wagtails | ||||
| Pied wagtail | 1 | 1 | ||
** See Table 1
*** Species not recorded in our survey but noted during Stapleford Bird Club visits March to May.
*** Species on the UK Red List have declined by >50% in the last 40 years, and on the Amber List have declined by 25-49%.
Appendix.
Check of nest boxes at Magog Down January 2016
Youth Wood 8 January – numbered from southern end of central walk
- Successful blue tit nest*
- No nest
- Roost only**
- Successful blue tit nest
- Roost only, top lid on ground
- No nest
- Successful great tit nest***
- Roost only
- Partial/unsuccessful great tit nest
Rotary Wood
- Partial/unsuccessful great tit nest
- Box on ground**** used by wood mouse to store food
Colins Wood – section upslope of Wandlebury footpath
- Successful Blue/Great tit* nest
- Box on ground containing an unsuccessful Great tit nest
- Box on ground used by mouse
- Box on ground with no nest
The three displaced boxes have been fixed on trees in same row upslope of Box 1.
Colins Wood – top end
- 4 nest boxes all on the ground one containing an unsuccessful tit nest.
- The 4 boxes have been re-sited on trees, with logs marking the positions at downland edge of wood.
Villedomer Wood
- 5 boxes on central ‘badger’ path,
- only two in place one with a partial/unsuccessful tit nest,
- remainder on ground; a wood mouse escaped from one of these boxes.
- The 3 displaced boxes were secured with screws penetrating through the back of the box.
NOTES:
* nest flattened by sitting bird not containing large amounts of moss
** boxes containing only faecal pellets
*** flattened nest containing large amounts of moss
**** tree growth had caused heads of fixing screws to be pulled into tree causing the box to fall
Tawny Owl box in Magog Wood – 4 grey squirrels evicted during cleaning
Kestrel box in Clunch pit – 5 grey squirrels evicted during cleaning.
Birds on Magog Down
We publish the monthly reports of Stapleford Bird club here, plus other occasional bird-related articles; hot links in each report will take you to the RSPB information page for each bird spotted.
The gallery below shows a random six of the birds often seen on Magog Down.
