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.