The month ahead: Nonsuch Park in September

The attention at the park turns from young Kestrels to large numbers of Jays with peak counts of around 30 (total of nearly 100 sightings in the few visits I've made in this month). Autumn migration is still in full swing and you have a very good chance of gripping me off with a potential Nonsuch lifer for me! Kestrels are still around but more wary. Gulls start improving with records of settled Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls rising in number. There's a chance that someone will find a Yellow-legged or Mediterranean one of these days. The prime area for Gulls is the playing fields at Cheam Park.

Below is a list of the 36 species of birds you may come across in September based on my records. The number is the difficulty to see each species (1 is hardest, 5 is easiest)

Black-headed Gull (5)
Blackbird (4)
Blackcap (1)
Blue Tit (2)
Carrion Crow (5)
Chiffchaff (2)
Coal Tit (2)
Dunnock (1)
Feral Pigeon (2)
Goldcrest (2)
Goldfinch (3)
Great Spotted Woodpecker (4)
Great Tit (4)
Green Woodpecker (3)
Greenfinch (2)
Grey Heron (1)
Herring Gull (2)
Hobby (1)
House Martin (1)
Jackdaw (4)
Jay (5)
Kestrel (4)
Lesser Black-backed Gull (1)
Long-tailed Tit (1)
Magpie (5)
Mistle Thrush (1)
Nuthatch (3)
Ring-necked Parakeet (5)
Robin (2)
Song Thrush (1)
Sparrowhawk (1)
Starling (4)
Stock Dove (2)
Wheatear (1)
Woodpigeon (5)
Wren (2)

August at Nonsuch

August at Nonsuch Park sees the tame young Kestrels that are very photographable. They seem to appear at the begginning of the month and disappear pretty strictly around the end so if you want good Kestrel pictures, this is the time and the place to visit.

Throughout the park, birds seem to be very quiet; even the Chiffchaffs have fallen silent (mostly!).

Swifts are making a move and the most you'll get is small numbers very high up, migrating but they are hard to spot. Other summer migrants are still around but are very hard to locate. Blackcaps are probably the most obvious (and the only ones you are likely to see) with their alarm calls.

Gull flocks grow in size, but at this point mainly contain Black-headed Gulls. You have to be lucky to get a settled Herring Gull (though these are frequent fly-overs) let alone a Common or Lesser Black-backed at this stage. These will come later on in the year.

This is a good month for passage migrants, with birds like Whinchats on the move in August across the country you stand a chance of seeing one in the park (they have been seen in the past, but by people other than me unfortunately!).

Here is a list of 38 Birds that you are likely to see in August (based on my own records). Note that August is a poorly recorded month because I go on holiday in this month for half of it and I only started recorded the site thoroughly in the last year or two so these do not fully represent the birds to be found this month, though they do give a rough idea.
The numbers represent difficulty to see (1 being hardest, 8 being easiest)

Black-headed Gull (5)
Blackbird (7)
Blackcap (1)
Blue Tit (4)
Carrion Crow (8)
Chaffinch (5)
Coal Tit (1)
Dunnock (2)
Feral Pigeon (7)
Goldcrest (4)
Goldfinch (3)
Great Spotted Woodpecker (5)
Great Tit (2)
Green Woodpecker (6)
Greenfinch (4)
Grey Heron (1)
Herring Gull (2)
Hobby (2)
House Sparrow (2)
Jackdaw (5)
Jay (4)
Kestrel (7)
Little Owl (1)
Long-tailed Tit (3)
Magpie (8)
Mallard (1)
Mistle Thrush (3)
Moorhen (1)
Nuthatch (2)
Ring-necked Parakeet (6)
Robin (6)
Song Thrush (1)
Sparrowhawk (5)
Starling (5)
Stock Dove (6)
Swift (1)
Woodpigeon (7)
Wren (3)

Rarer birds of Nonsuch Park

Just for the interest of it I searched through my Nonsuch records on birdtrack and found some of the rarer Birds for Nonsuch, that take a bit more searching, with just a few recent records. Here they are:
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker 1 record
Wheatear 1 record
Grey Wagtail 1 record
House Martin 1 record
Pied Wagtail 3 records
Hobby 2 records
Lesser Black-backed Gull 6 records
Common Gull 8 records

Recent sightings

25/7/08

3 Stock Dove, 2 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 4+ Green Woodpecker, 1 Sparrowhawk, c20 Ring-necked Parakeet, c20 Black-headed Gulls, 3+ Mistle Thrush, 2 Jackdaw

26/7/08

1 probable Crossbill, 1 Hobby, 1 Common Gull, 4+ Green Woodpeckers showing well including juveniles, 4 Jackdaw, 3 Jay, c30 Ring-necked Parakeets set up by male Sparrowhawk, 2+ juvenile Sparrowhawks (still slightly downy) in woods (first breeding record!)

27/7/08

Best of the morning and evening trips today:

4+ Green Woodpecker (including juveniles), 2 Coal Tit, 1 Nuthatch, 2 Collared Dove (rare for site), 2+ Goldcrest, c30 Black-headed Gull, 20+ Ring-necked Parakeet, 4 Mistle Thrush (including juvs), 2 Stock Dove, 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 11 Jackdaw, 10+ Greenfinch, 1 Song Thrush No sign of Crossbill after search in morning and evening

12/7/08

An expectional day today, I equalled my record day total for this site of 31 sp. Some good birds too- 1 HOBBY 2nd site record+ first adult. Flew from Cheam Park to ND1 at 2:48pm. Also 2 Kestrel (females, 1 ND1 1 ND2- ND1 bird showed very well), 2 Stock Dove (gardens), 1 female 1 juvenile Mallard (first confirmed breeding record- balancing ponds), 2 Moorhen (balancing ponds), 4+ Green Woodpecker, 2 Jay, 6 Mistle Thrush at 2nd no dogs (including juvs), c30 Black-headed Gull (ND1, ND2, short grassland in front of Cheam car park- 5 juveniles altogether) (first settled Gulls of the season), 5+ Herring Gull over, c10 Ring-necked Parakeet (not many today and the ones that were there were quite elusive) , 1 Chiffchaff (singing near balacing ponds), 1 Blackcap (singing near gardens), 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker (mansion house), 3 Jackdaw (gardens).

House Martin record

After another long session of putting all my old records onto birdtrack I have found a record of a House martin at Nonsuch Park on the 11th September 2005. An addition to the list, I suppose it is an armchair Nonsuch tick! Not often that happens for Nonsuch.