Author Archives: Thomas Whitlock

Day 9 of my bird species data collection, this time at High Wood. I wasn’t able to undertake a dawn survey this morning, so I undertook my second dusk sample at High Wood. Another 18 species were recorded, with 1 … Continue reading →

The breeding season for the Blackbird lasts from March to June. Temperature influences the timing of the start of breeding, and rainfall probably influences the ending of breeding, and breeding begins later in woodland than in gardens. Incubation of eggs … Continue reading →

The Blackbird (Turdus merula) is a ground dwelling bird with thrush-like proportions. The species is familiar.   by Laura Whitehead The male has a uniformly black plumage. The legs are dark and the bill and eye-ring are yellow. The females … Continue reading →

The second of my dawn samples today, this time at Maiden Erlegh nature reserve. In total, another 20 species were recorded, with 3 additional species being caught on the voice recorder. Another 4 species were identified which were not previously, these were … Continue reading →

Experiments have shown that Goldcrests are morphologically and behaviourally more specialized to forage in coniferous forest compared to the strikingly similar Firecrest. The species differ particularly in foraging speed and postures, which means that branches are exploited in different ways. … Continue reading →

The Goldcrest (Regulus regulus) is the smallest bird in the UK at only 9cm in length. The Goldcrest bears a passing resemblance to a Yellow-Browned warbler (Phylloscopus inornatus), but the proportionally large, white-ringed dark eye and the thick colourful crown … Continue reading →

Back to my dawn samples this morning, at the hideously early time of 5:00am, and back onto Campus Woodland. In total, another 19 species were recorded, but with 5 species which were not previously witnessed on campus. this included Long Tailed … Continue reading →

The Eurasian treecreeper is an old-growth forest passerine preferring forests of over 100 years old. The species is altricial and the chicks fledge at an age of 14–16 days. Clutch size varies from 3 to 8 (5.5 ± 0.9 eggs … Continue reading →

The common treecreeper (Certhia familiaris), is an unobtrusive little woodland bird. The Treecreeper is easily overlooked as it creeps up tree trunks, probing the bark for insects and spiders with its needle-like bill. The spiky tail is used as a support … Continue reading →

The third of my dusk sampling occurred on Friday evening, this time in the High Wood area behind Bulmershe campus. It was warm to say the least, with temperatures of 26C making it far more enjoyable to collect data compared to the rain on … Continue reading →