Jesmond Dene (1 Viewer)

[Michael Frankis]

My local patch is Jesmond Dene, a wooded valley and adjacent sports fields in Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland.

Got an aerial photo of it (courtesy Newcastle City Parks & Recreation Dept.), the red arrow points to my house (well, my parents' house, not really mine!)

Michael

Here's my list for the Dene again, posted it once before but it's got lost in the threads somewhere (not even sure where it is myself now!)

1 — common
2 — rare but annual
3 — rare, less than annual
4 — very rare (less than 5 records)
5 — Dene mega (one record only)
e — previously present (now extinct)

Little Grebe — 4
Cormorant — 3 (fly-over only)
Grey Heron — 2 slight increase
Mute Swan — 3 (fly-over only)
Whooper Swan — 5 (fly-over only)
Pink-footed Goose — 4 (fly-over only)
Greylag Goose — 4 (fly-over only)
Canada Goose — 4
Mandarin Duck — 3
Mallard — 1 rapid increase in past, now stable
Tufted Duck — 2 slight increase
Goldeneye — 4
Goosander — 3 new occasional winter visitor
Sparrowhawk — 1 stable
Kestrel — 3 declined (bred in the past)
Merlin — 4
Hobby — 5
Peregrine Falcon — 5 (fly-over only)
Grey Partridge — e
Pheasant — 5
Moorhen — 1 stable
Coot — 5
Oystercatcher — 5 (fly-over only)
Golden Plover — 4 (fly-over only)
Lapwing — 3 (fly-over only)
Common Snipe — 4
Woodcock — 2 stable (winter & passage visitor)
Whimbrel — 5 (fly-over only)
Curlew — 5 (fly-over only)
Redshank — 5 (fly-over only)
Laughing Gull — 5
Black-headed Gull — 1 stable
Common Gull — 1 stable
Lesser Black-back — 1 increasing
Yellow-legged Gull — 5
Herring Gull — 1 increasing
Iceland Gull — 5 (fly-over only)
Glaucous Gull — 5 (fly-over only)
Great Black-back — 1 stable (fly-over only)
Common Tern — 4
Rock Dove — 1 increasing rapidly
Stock Dove — 1 stable or slight increase
Wood Pigeon — 1 increasing
Collared Dove — 2 declining
Cuckoo — 5
Tawny Owl — 1 stable
Swift — 1 stable
Alpine Swift — 5
Kingfisher — 1 recent decline (due to increase in rats?)
Wryneck — 5
Great Spot Woodp — 1 now stable after past increase
Sky Lark — 2 (fly-over only)
Sand Martin — 3
Barn Swallow — 2 declined
House Martin — 1 stable
Tree Pipit — 4
Meadow Pipit — 2 stable (mostly only fly-over)
Yellow Wagtail — 4 (fly-over only)
Grey Wagtail — 1 stable
Pied Wagtail — 1 stable
Waxwing — 3
Dipper — 3
Wren — 1 stable
Dunnock — 1 slight decline
Robin — 1 stable
Redstart — 4
Northern Wheatear — 4
Ring Ouzel — 4
Blackbird — 1 stable
Fieldfare — 1 stable (mainly only fly-over)
Song Thrush — 1 stable or slight decline
Redwing — 1 decline
Mistle Thrush — 1 stable
Sedge Warbler — 3
Icterine Warbler — 5
Lesser Whitethroat — 3
Whitethroat — 4
Garden Warbler — 3
Blackcap — 1 increase
Wood Warbler — 2 stable
Chiffchaff — 1 increase
Willow Warbler — 1 major decline
Goldcrest — 1 stable
Spotted Flycatcher — 2 major decline
Pied Flycatcher — 4
Long-tailed Tit — 1 increase
Willow Tit — 5
Coal Tit — 1 stable
Blue Tit — 1 stable
Great Tit — 1 stable
Nuthatch — 1 increase
Treecreeper — 1 stable
Jay — 2 recently re-colonised after 15 yrs absence
Magpie — 1 major increase
Jackdaw — 1 increase
Rook — 1 stable (mainly only fly-over)
Carrion Crow — 1 major increase
Hooded Crow — 5
Starling — 1 catastrophic decline
House Sparrow — 1 major decline
Tree Sparrow — e
Chaffinch — 1 stable
Brambling — 2 fluctuating
Greenfinch — 1 past decline, now stable
Goldfinch — 1 slight increase
Siskin — 2 increase
Linnet — 2 decline
Lesser Redpoll — 3 major decline
Crossbill — 4
Bullfinch — 1 major decline
Hawfinch — e decline
Yellowhammer — 5
Reed Bunting — e

 

[dennis]

Hi Michael. On the species you consider now extinct, what happened to cause their departure? Was it the large housing developement behind the woodlot?

dennis

 

[StevieEvans]

only one wpkr ssp....?

Fine List, esp. given the location.

 

[phyllosc]

That looks like a thorough bit of bird study on your part Michael. It must have taken many hour of field work over several years/seasons, I supsect.

How many other people on BF who watch a regular patch compile this kind of info or submit their records to county recorders?

Dave

 

[Michael Frankis]

Hi Dennis,
Depends on which housing development - at the far end of the wood (the north end, I forgot to mention the photo is looking NNW, also it is a fairly old photo, c.20 years old) are three pale green fields. The first two are sports fields and are still there, the third was a crop field, and is now built over. That's where the lost species tended to be.

Hi Stevie,
Yep, only one woodpecker. It is on heavy clay soil, so no ants, so no Green W'peckers. Lesser Spot is a potential new addition for the future (there was one in Gosforth Park just 3km to north last year), but (a) they are very rare this far north, and (b) as you can see the place is rather isolated from other woodland, so difficult to reach for birds like that.

Hi Dave,
Yep, anything of note is submitted to the Northumbs recorder.

A few more stats:
Latitude: 55°00'N
Longitude: 1°35'W
Altitude: top of slope 55m, bottom of valley 10m
Area: 25ha (63 acres)
Length: 2km (1½ miles)
Width: 200-300m (bit under ¼ mile)
Water: small stream, plus concrete-lined boating pond

Michael

 

[Karl J]

An interesting bit of localised work that Michael, obviously a very thorough knowledge of the area there.

From the looks of it, it's right on your doorstep so birding is part of everyday life ?

 

[Charles Harper]

Thanks for the aerial view, Michael-- that's a nice way to view a patch, gives a good feeling for the environs. What's the length and breadth of that patch, would you say?

 

[Michael Frankis]

Hi Charles,
In my second posting above

Hi Dennis,
Forgot to add, the local extinction of Hawfinch (a close relative of your Evening Grosbeak) is of course nothing to do with building on the field at the top end. Part of a national decline, possibly related to a run of cold wet springs which resulted in poor tree seed crops, but possibly other (as yet unknown) factors, such as whatever pollutants are leaving insect numbers low.

I'll edit the list (maybe tomorrow) to indicate which species are declining, which are increasing.

Michael

 

[dennis]

Michael. That info on Hawkfinch is interesting. In the past, Evening Grosbeaks have mounted a common incursion into Pennsylvania in the winter. This hasn't been the case for at least 10 years. Perhaps the two have something in common.

dennis

 

[StevieEvans]

How Come you've got Wryneck, 3 rare gulls, Ict.Warbler, Hobby and Alpine Swift.........

Where are Your Flyover Greenshanks & Greensands..........?

Whats going to be next...?

How about Mealy Redpoll, ........ of course thats after those two easy flypast waders ? !

Stevie

 

[Michael Frankis]

Hi Stevie,

No flyover waders (or very few of them) because the Dene isn't on the way to anywhere from anywhere - there's a flight line about a half mile to the west of the Dene, with waders from Gosforth Park heading towards the Team Valley on your side of the Tyne. But any wader that was headed south from Gosforth Park directly towards the Dene would be aimed for a high hill in Gateshead, so they divert that little bit to the west and miss the Dene. Ditto, east-west bound waders follow the Tyne, a mile to the south, and miss here.

The fact that the Dene is completely surrounded by heavily built-up areas must also reduce the number of birds crossing over.

The other BIG problem for finding anything even slightly timid like Green Sand or Common Sand (which apparently used to breed, up to about 1930), is that it is impossible to be in the Dene before the first people out emptying their dogs. I did hear of someone with their mutt flushing two Green Sands very early one morning. To have any chance of something like that, I'd have to be checking every morning at about 3 a.m.

Mealy Redpoll, I've had probables, but not yet good enough views to convince me. But there's not much alder or birch in the Dene, so redpolls in general are very scarce as feeding birds (and I'm not going to call a flyover redpoll as Mealy!)

What next?? Pochard is my bet for the next, but dogs will be a problem again, the pond isn't large enough for Pochards to feel secure (even Tufties, which are tamer, are irregular visitors and often don't stay long). Mealy Redpoll, of course. Firecrest must rate well too. But it could just as easily be a spring passage Common Rosefinch or an autumn Yellow-browed Warbler. Predicting this sort of thing is never easy (unless you're Dave 'phyllosc' Carr of Black Lark fame!)

Two other possibilities are Buzzard and Goshawk; I've actually had two 'Buzzard (sp)' over the Dene, but both were unidentified in respect of the high risk of falconers' escapes in this area; one of them was most likely a Red-shouldered Hawk.

Michael

 

[StevieEvans]

Good Stuff Michael.

I think thats the Beauty of Local Birding, You never know whats next, & no-matter where you are, something unusual will come along, Eventually!

An quite small old favourite haunt of mine at Durham City, once had an immature EiDER DUCK on a sunny flat calm November morning!

Keep us informed of what you get.

 

[Michael Frankis]

Here's a map of the site - it is the green strip of woodland running roughly north-south, just left of centre of the map, plus the two white areas (football pitches) just left of 'Hospl'.

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/streetmap.dll?grid2map?X=426000&Y=566000&zoom=3

Area shown is 3km x 3km (roughly 2 x 2 miles), the blue squares are 1km squares.

Michael

 

[Charles Harper]

Thanks, Michåel. That Streetmap.co.uk seems to be a very useful site. To forwarn some users, 'Print preview' may show a blank page, but it prints out nicely nevertheless.