This page was updated on Wednesday, 24-Jan-2024 15:34:43 GMT

WICK COUNTRY PARK WILDLIFE SIGHTINGS - December 13th 2023

This month's wildlife walk took place on Wednesday 13th December.

Dates for 2024

  • January 17th
  • February 21st
  • March 20th
  • April 17th
  • May 22nd
  • June 12th
  • July 17th
  • August 21st
  • September 18th
  • October 16th
  • November 20th
  • December 11th

Summary of sightings

Birds - 20 Species

The last and final walk of 2023 took place on Wednesday 13th December. Weather was kind to us, being sunny and dry, and so were the birds. It was a day of numbers, with very large numbers of Wood Pigeon and Black Headed Gulls and decent numbers of many other birds. In addition, our winter birds are here at last with both Fieldfares and Redwings flying around the park, although they were very jittery and not stopping to give us decent views. Perhaps this was because of the large Sparrowhawk we saw chasing the Wood Pigeons around. This was probably a female as a male would not be large enough to tackle a Wood Pigeon. Other highlights were a nice flock of Goldfinch feeding on the alders along the boardwalk, a flock of House Sparrow feeding on seeds near the pavilion and a couple of flocks of Long Tailed Tit in the hedges. A good day to end the year - full details are below:

Common Name Scientific Name Date Total Count Trip Notes
Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus 13/12/2023 112 Large number of birds over the lake, a conservative estimate
Carrion Crow Corvus corone 13/12/2023 4 Up to four in the park
Common Blackbird Turdus merula 13/12/2023 5 A few in the park today mainly males with one female.
Common Moorhen Gallinula chloropus 13/12/2023 3 At the lake.
Common Starling Sturnus vulgaris 13/12/2023 8 A small flock over the trail near the pill box.
Common Wood Pigeon Columba palumbus 13/12/2023 70 Lots in the park today - they were everywhere
Eurasian Blue Tit Cyanistes caeruleus 13/12/2023 5 A few in the hedges.
Eurasian Coot Fulica atra 13/12/2023 3 At the lake.
Eurasian Magpie Pica pica 13/12/2023 7 Usual birds in the park.
Eurasian Sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus 13/12/2023 1 Seen twice, a large female scaring all of the woodpigeons.
European Goldfinch Carduelis carduelis 13/12/2023 13 A nice flock feeding on the alders along the boardwalk. Others around the park.
European Green Woodpecker Picus viridis 13/12/2023 1 One heard from the boardwalk.
European Herring Gull Larus argentatus 13/12/2023 1 Just one overhead.
European Robin Erithacus rubecula 13/12/2023 6 A few around the park.
Fieldfare Turdus pilaris 13/12/2023 13 A few around the park, including three well seen in a lakeside tree.
Great Tit Parus major 13/12/2023 1 Just one at the pavilion.
House Sparrow Passer domesticus 13/12/2023 12 Feeding on seeds at the pavilion.
Long-tailed Tit Aegithalos caudatus 13/12/2023 12 A couple of nice flocks in the park today.
Mallard Anas platyrhynchos 13/12/2023 8 At the lake.
Redwing Turdus iliacus 13/12/2023 36 Good numbers in the park, especially around the teasel field.


Reptiles: cumulative record since September 2022

In addition to the above, I also set out details of reptiles we have seen in the park over the last few years. My own reptile recording software has somehow gone awry, so I have started to use some online software (the record pool) for this and so far, we have 3 records:

Record date Record time Species Lifestage Sex Quantity County Nearest town/City Grid ref Lat Lon
01/10/2023 11:00:00 Common lizard Adult unknown 1 Essex Basildon TQ75969167 51.5964 0.53916
27/07/2023 11:30:00 European pond terrapin Adult unknown 1 Essex Basildon TQ75979167 51.59642 0.53924
21/09/2022 11:00:00 Adder Adult male 1 Essex Basildon TQ75969169 51.59658 0.53909