Birds nesting around Bury St Edmunds

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BIRDS-NESTING AROUND BURY ST. EDMUNDS.

BIRDS-NESTING AROUND BURY ST. EDMUNDS

BY FRANK BURRELL.

OUR Birds Recorder's very interesting observations (Trans, supra, pp. 55-8) induce me to lay before Members of this Society the various additional species that have nested of recent years within a twelve-mile radius of Bury. I have devoted three-and-forty years to Bird-study, and have maintained careful notes of kinds breeding in west Suffolk. Mr. Powell enumerates eighty-seven species, of which all are to be found also here, with the exception of Common Sheld-duck (Tadorna cornuta, Gmel.) and Little Tern (Sterna minuta, L.). To the remaining eighty-five that are found within ten miles of Ipswich I am enabled to add from the Bury district:—1. Acrocephalus palustris, Bch., the Marsh Warbier; 2. Pkylloscopus rufus, Bch., Chiffchaff ; 3. Locustella ncevia, Bodd., Grasshopper Warbier; 4. Motacilla flava, L., the Blue-headed Wagtail; 5. Loxia curvirostra, L., the Crossbill; 6. Emberiza cirlus, L., the Cirl Bunting ; 7.Pica rustica, Sc., Magpie ; 8. Corvus corone, L., the Carrion Crow; 9. Asio accipitrinus, Fall., the Short-eared O w l ; 10. Circus cyaneus, L., Hen Harrier ; 11. C. eineraceus, Mont., Montagus Harrier; 12. Falco subbuteo, L., Hobby Hawk; 13. Bertiicla leueopsis, Bch., the Barnacle Goose; 14. B. brenta, Pall, the Brent Goose; 15. Anas strepera, L., the Gadwall; 16. Spatula clypeata, L., Shoveller D u c k ; 17. Nettion crecca, L., T e a l ; 18. Querquedula circia, L., Garganey ; 19. Fulgula cristata, Lch., the Tufted Duck; 20. Lagopus Scoticus, Lath., Red Grouse ; 21. Coturnix communis, Bon., Quail; 22. Cr ex pratensis, Bch., Land Rail; 23. Rallus aquaticus, L., Water Rail; 24. Scolopax rusticola, L., Woodcock; 25. Tringa hypoleucus, L., the Common Sandpiper; 26. Larus marinus, L., the Black-headed Gull; 27. Podicipes fluviatilis, Tun., Little Grebe.

1. T h e Marsh Warbier. I consider this species evidently overlooked in Suffolk. T h e late Lord Cadogan and I identified its eggs, of which four were in a nest built in a small bush near the lake in Culford Park, on 17 June 1922: they are longer and much paler in ground colour than those of Reed Warbiers, A. streperus, Vie., with bold blotches [as is distinctly shown by Frohawk in Butler's Eggs of Brit. Isles 1905, pl. ii, figg. 56-60.— Ed.], Later I have thrice found nests, all built in Meadow-sweet (.Spircea uhnaria, L . ) : two were not far from the River Lark in Flempton on 27 June 1930, one forsaken and one containing three eggs ; the other was in the Aide marshes at Iken during the second week of June 1930, containing four eggs. [NEW to Suffolk.

It " has occurred in Norfolk, will doubtless be identified m Suffolk" (Tuck, 1911); " but evidence for East Angha not satisfactory" (Kirkman & Jourdain, 1930); " no records in Suffolk" (Ticehurst, 1932).—Ed.].

BIRDS-NESTING AROUND BURY s r .

EDMUNDS.

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3. T h e Grasshopper Warbier is a very shy bird, and anyone waiiting to hear it should be up by 3 a.m. during the early part of May. T h e sound is similar to that of a fisherman's reel running out the line.

I t is the most difficult of all nests to find and most frequently built in the densest grass; when the sitting bird is disturbed, she slips off and, creeping away amid the thick herbage like a mouse, is very rarely seen.

5. Crossbills, at one time rare, are now quite common. I have found nests with fully grown young as early as the third week in January; such nests are built early in December, and the eggs laid by the second week of that month. T h e s e birds are very tarne, and will allow one to stroke them on their nest. S o m e three years ago I saw no less than twenty-nine nests of young.

9. Nests of the Short-eared Owl have been found by me upon only two occasions : one contained four eggs, and the second four young birds ; in the latter case both parents were shot by gunmen unfortunately.

10. A nest containing five young Hen Harriers, in J u n e 1917, managed to be unobserved and, as far as I am aware, was not destroyed.

11. I came across one nest of the Montagu Harrier on 24 May 1930, containing four eggs ; but both the cock and hen were unluckily shot. S o m e fifty years earlier a nest of five eggs was successfully hatched in the same vicinity.

T h e s e birds do no harm to game, but when once they are seen they are soon shot.

[Keepers hold other views respecting their destructiveness to game.—T.G.P.] 20. Red Grouse breed regularly at Elveden. A nest there this year hatched successfully, and the young birds have been seen several times.

21. [My father Colonel H . A. Kirkby observed, and carefully refrained from shooting, a Quail on his land in Hepworth during 11 October 1 9 3 3 . — E . H . KIRKBY, v.v. 30 D e c . 1933.]

24. It is not generally known that a goodly number of Woodcock remain to breed each year. Actually some dozen or more broods are reared every season. Laying begins very early, and I generally see a nest containing eggs on or about 2 8 M a r c h . S u c h nests are to be found six miles from Bury.

25. I came across a nest of the Common Sandpiper, containing four eggs, at Icklingham on 1 J u n e 1929.

T h i s , I believe, is the first to be discovered in west Suffolk.