3 new acceptances

The following species have been accepted and he updated list of Birds recorded at Nonsuch Park will be published on birdsofnonsuch.blogspot.com
Fieldfare: 2 records
10/11/07 1 adult. Second no dogs area observed by Phil Wallice
24/11/07 at least one adult. Second no dogs area observed by David Campbell and Phil Wallice. approx 12:15pm
Rook: 1 record
24/11/07 1 heard. Back of woods, near Cheam Park, observed by David Campbell and Phil Wallice. approx 14:10pm
Common Gull: 1 record
24/11/07 1 adult winter on field at Cheam Park with c300 Black-headed Gulls and c20 Herring Gulls observed by David Campbell and Phil Wallice. approx 14:15 pm

What a day 24/11/07!!!

Jay





Today was an absolutely fantastic day! Nonsuch school had something going on so the car park was jam packed however my nan managed to drop me off and I went round with Phil all the time. I wasn't expecting much but it seemed we chose the perfect route. I am going to make a record of it on my PC now so I don't forget it. We got 6 species which are considered rare for Nonsuch, including 2 firsts and a second.




After eventually finding a place to park, I met up with Phil and we started off, we checked the never disappointing 1st no dogs area. But this time it did disappoint, no Green Woodpeckers today and certainly no sign of any Lesser spotted Woodpeckers, not that we expected that. We carried on, to be honest, at this point we didn't think we were going to see much anyway, with all these people and cars in the car park. As we were scanning, two Mistle Thrushes flew over head.




The day's list started off with the usual Carrion Crows and Magpies with several over head Gulls, mainly Black-headed. Ring-necked Parakeets were not as obvious as usual, but we could still hear some in the background. We heard two Jackdaws amongst them. Jackdaws nest in the big old tree in the gardens with 4-6 pairs breeding in the summer. Not much really considering the high population that nests in the chimneys of old houses in Cheam.




As we went round the corner to enter the gardens we heard a high pitched weak 'see see seee' which we immediately recognised as a Goldcrest, the confiers they were in were huge and there were quite a few of them so locating any bird would be hard enough let alone such a quiet, weak, high pitched call. I suppose that is the purpose of it; to make them hard to locate.




I heard the louder and more powerful note of a Dunnock. And soon afterwards we heard the 'check... ... ... ... ...check... ... ... ... check' contact call of the Great-spotted Woodpecker. This was good, we were up to ten species in the first ten minutes, if that. Which is pretty productive for Nonsuch.




In the gardens 3 Jays showed well at close quarters, which I got some photos of (see above). There was an obliging Blackbird.

We moved on to the grassland area where there was a surprise Pied Wagtail, juvenile and the second official Nonsuch record. There were Long-tailed Tits, about 15 of them with a couple of Great and Blue Tits.

At the second no dogs area there was a Feildfare, presumably the same that Phil saw a couple of weeks earlier on. This confirmed the record and it is definitely on the official Nonsuch list now. There were a couple of Lesser Black-backs and a few Herring Gulls on the second no dogs area too.

We moved on to the ponds and there was nothing but a couple of Grey Herons flying around. We moved up to the scrubby areas up along there. This produced some Gold and Green finches and there were also some Stock Doves. We went back to the first park of the park and went behind the woods to Cheam park, here there were a few hundred Black-headed Gulls and a few Herring Gulls, there was also a Common Gull, probably a second winter, this was a first for Nonsuch! We then heard the unmistakable deeper crowing of a Rook, another a first for Nonsuch, though we did not manage to see it there was no doubt to its ID and it is now to be added to the official Nonsuch list.
We then returned to the car and went home very pleased.

Potential new first for Nonsuch

Phil Wallice seems to be on a role with finding firsts for Nonsuch, I joint found the Hobby with him, he found the Wheatear and now he saw a single Fieldfare feeding with Mistle Thrushes yesterday!
I am going to contact him for further details on the bird.

Fieldfare Turdus pilaris. Potential first for Nonsuch Park, single adult seen on the 10th November 2007 by Phil Wallice.
Status Pending admittance to Nonsuch list

Nonsuch Park in Bird Atlas 2007-11 Survey

I have been allocated a 2x2km square patch of ground for the BTO Bird Atlas 2007-11. My patch covers a part of Cheam and Ewell village and the majority of Nonsuch Park. I did my early winter visit today. I chose to do it for two hours. I broke my record of 25 species in one visit for Nonsuch and managed to get 26, but only just. Otherwise, I saw far less Jays (only 1) lots of Goldcrests, Blue, Great, Coal and Long-tailed Tits, a female Kestrel and many of the other usual birds. I am going to submit the record to the BTO soon.

The Bird Atlas 2007-11 is a very important survey, please consider helping the BTO visit www.birdatlas.net for details.

Saturday 6th October 2007

Female Green Woodpecker

I met up with my friend Phil again, but we were unable to go early in the morning so we had to put up with the many people and dogs there. There was still no sign of the Hobby and it has probably moved on.
There were, as usual, plenty corvids including 9 Magpies, 17 Carrion Crows and 4 Jays (sightings going down again).
The gardens produced 2 singing Robins, a Chaffinch (heard), 3 Goldfinch, a female Blackbird; at least one Goldcrest was feeding in the conifers and a Nuthatch (heard).
There was a female Kestrel in the grassland area which I photographed but was abit too quick with my movements and accidentally scared it off, I was used to being able to stride right up to them, but they must be getting used to the threat of humans now.
We got excellent views of a female Green Woodpecker (Pictured), it was the closest I have ever managed to get to one and one of the first times I had used real fieldcraft to get close to the bird, it gave great results too. It was a good day at Nonsuch, not a terrible variety but very enjoyable.

3 New Additions to Nonsuch List- see http://birdsofnonsuch.blogspot.com/

Finally no sign of the Hobby...

On Saturday (29th September 2007) I went back down to Nonsuch because I was dying for a bit of birding. The weather was not great, so I didn't expect the Hobby anyway, they don't hunt in these conditions because there are no aerial insects for it to feed on.
It was an enjoyable day anyway, I thought there was a good chance of green Woodpecker because of the conditions and we ended up seeing a juvenile and a female on the first no dogs area. Ring-necked Parakeets were less active today though very noisy. I noted 3 pairs of Blackbirds which is more than usual. Near the first no dogs area there was a flock of tits passing through, I only really got a view of a Great Tit though there were Blue Tits there too. Several Robins were active too with a total of four seen. Great-spotted Woodpecker was seen in flight and heard making its contact call. 24 Starlings flew over, which is average for Nonsuch. As with the last few weeks Jays were particularly active collecting nuts. 24 Black-headed Gulls were present in Cheam Park with a brief 'from behind' glimpse of a probable Common Gull.
We headed down to the 'Kestrel Area' which is a large patch of rough grassland. and despite not being able to get close to them as before, we saw a record breaking 4 birds there in flight, calling. I heard a Nuthatch in the gardens and 2 Herring Gulls flew over. Other than this there was nothing else of note, still a very interesting and enjoyable day.
Oh yes... the Hobby wasn't there. Either it had moved on or wasn't active due to the weather.

Sunday 23rd September 2007

I went to the park once again on Sunday morning. With Phil too. It was great. I mainly went to see if the Northern Wheatear (rare here) was still there.

There were the usual corvids there as we arrived, as usual more carrion crows than magpies. As with most of the other visits, one of the first sounds you hear is the squawking of the Ring-necked Parakeets. There are so many here now I am going to re-consider my population estimate. A Great-spotted Woodpecker flew over.

As I walked through the gardens to meet Phil at the 'Kestrel Area' that we now call it. I saw two female (one was probably a juvenile) Kestrels circling above me calling. As with the last few weeks, Jays flew around in large numbers.

I saw Phil and went over to him. He said the Wheatear wasn't there, typical. Its not that I have to 'twitch' a Wheatear its just that he had good views of it and it is the first ever record for Nonsuch Park. The first bird that is new to the park that I didn't find for myself!

We soon moved into the gardens, hoping to see Goldcrests again. Goldcrest are Britain's smallest bird, joint with the Firecrest. Measuring in at just 10cm long if you stretch them out as far as they go! After alot of careful listening I picked two up, that meant I had the job of trying to describe the exact twig that they were on which is not a pleasant task and very frustrating!

We exited the gardens, heard a Wren singing and surprise surprise, we heard the Hobby again! Phil said he heard it the day before, he had mistaken Ring-necked Parakeet calls for the Hobby before so I wasn't too sure, but after hearing this I believed him. Then, sure enough we briefly saw the streamlined, giant Swift shape of the Hobby fly past. No photos though. Then we saw a Kestrel fly past too. Phil heard a Coal Tit and located it. Other birds around this point were Jackdaws and a Green Woodpecker heard.

We had a cup of tea and Phil and I went off into the woods. Many non-birders may naturally think this is the place to go to see birds but it is in fact very hard work, especially in summer when the leaves are covering the trees. At the back of the woods I saw a single Goldfinch and 2 adult winter Black-headed Gulls flew past. Now we saw two juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gulls fly over, this, surprisingly, is the first ever record for Nonsuch! Soon afterwards I spotted a 3rd year on the field and 2 2nd year Herring Gulls.

Then, as we came through to the other side of the woods again we spotted the juvenile Hobby hawking insects over a field! It was by far the best views I have ever had of a Hobby in flight. We watched it as it did about 5 circuits of the field, swooping up and down, as it grabbed aerial insects in mid air. Whilst watching the Hobby, we were treated to a very breif, but fantastic sighting of a Weasel, I didn't manage a photo becuase it was in the shade whilst my camera was set for the sunny sky, and even if it was, it was too quick!

The juvenile Hobby has been present at Nonsuch for two weeks now. It has been one of the rarest birds ever found at Nonsuch but unbeatable as the most enjoyable bird.

Sunday 16th September 2007

I went with my friend Phil down to Nonsuch in search of the Kestrels and once again we didn't see one!There were plenty Jays, a few Stock Doves and Green Woodpeckers as well as some over head Gulls. We saw 20 species all together. Other good birds were Goldcrest, Chiffchaff (heard) and a Nuthatch also heard.But guess what we saw!The Hobby! We started walking down the field when we heard a long, sad sounding 'kaaa kaaaa kaaaa kaaaa'. Then we saw a streamlined falcon fly straight over our heads, fantastic. This was at around 8:50am. We saw it again with a Sparrowhawk at around 10:20am.Unfortunately, we didn't get any photos of anything really, apart from a crow.

Some info about Nonsuch

Now, I think it would be useful for you to know some things about the place you are reading about. It is not the best rarity hotspot in the world, but it can turn up some very rare birds for South-West London, particularly Cheam, Epsom, Banstead, Sutton; that sort of area. This is because it is one of the only large, natural sites in the area with a good variety of habitats and birds passing through see it and stop there. So far, three rare South West London birds have turned up here (Beddington Sewage Farm does get more rare birds but remember this is a park). These 3 species are Little Owl (10/10/04), Lesser-spotted Woodpecker (3/2/07) and of course the Juvenile Hobby (9/9/07). The last two are particularly rare for this area.
The park consists of various habitats, these include tall Grassland, Deciduous Woodland, Confiferous Woodland, Mixed Woodland, Ponds and gardens as well as short grass fields.
Part of the long-term aim of this website is to riase awareness of Nonsuch amongst birders, then, maybe it will become more appreciated for its wildlife and well lets just say it may help combat the erm, little plans that the council have in store for this place.

Now the Nonsuch list sonsits of 44 species, nothing great but remember, it is only me who birdwatches there and I'm not very good at it so it is probably way below what birds actually use the site.

Some of the start commoner birds include Great-spotted and Green Woodpecker, Ring-necked Parakeets, Sparrowhawks which breed (?), Kestrels which breed on site or nearby (?) plenty songbirds, occasional Grey Heron. And much more. Other wildlife includes foxes, a variety of insects including many butterflies and occasional dragonflies, including four-spotted chaser (which is the only dragonfly I know).
See the 'Birds of Nonsuch Page' (found in the links section) for full details on the status of the birds of the park.

Kestrels 15th and 16th aug 07

Before my holiday to Wales, which I will tell you about on birdnut2.blogspot.com soon, I headed down to Nonsuch to see the Kestrels, here are the results:

Hobby 9/9/07

Yesterday morning as a birding friend an I walked through the park, a sighting which would forever influence Nonsuch park's birding, no it wasn't a first for Britain, or any kind of nation rarity, but it certainly was a local rarity and a very influential local sighting.


A juvenile Hobby, showed itself for a whole 40 minutes, high in a conifer tree allowing me and Phil to get shots of it. It was a migrant, stopping off at Nonsuch, on its way to Africa, after being born somewhere else the UK earlier this year. It was such a stroke of luck that the day I brought my friend along we were treated to seeing this beautiful migrant Falcon:

Welcome to Nonsuch Park Birder

Hello and welcome to my new blog, I have decided to dedicate it to my birdwatching at my local patch, Nonsuch Park. On this site, as it develops you can read about my latest findings at Nonsuch, see my latest photos and find out more about this little known site.