BIRDS
The Linear Walk supports many birds. In Spring, when
migratory birds return, willow warblers, chiff-chaffs and blackcaps can
be seen and heard among the larger trees lining the first part of the
walk near the Tithby Road railway bridge. Many of these stay to breed
along with the resident blackbirds, song thrushes and hedge sparrows.
Common whitethroat, goldfinch and greenfinch are found further along the
walk among the smaller bushes. Green and Great Spotted woodpeckers are
occasional visitors flighting along the field edge between some of the
larger, older trees.
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Field fare (Photo: Lincolnshire Wild
Life Trust)
Long tailed tit (Photo: Brayton Holt)
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Goldfinch (Photo: Nottinghamshire
Wild Life Trust)
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The Toothill School playing fields form insect
hunting grounds for pied wagtails, mistle thrushes and, in spring
and early summer, the migratory wheatears and yellow wagtails, whilst
long-tailed tits favour the small trees near the school and the
'Banks'. Redwings and fieldfares are seen in the Butt Field area
in winter feasting on the hawthorn berries in the hedgerow, whilst
in summer skylarks can be heard singing high above the fields adjacent
to Parsons Hill. Kestrels are regularly seen and sparrowhawks visit
open gardens whilst barn and little owls appear on the edges of
the town, in particular flying over the verges on Chapel Lane going
towards the Margidunum roundabout.
Car Dyke flows beneath Chapel Lane past the
industrial estate. Between here and Parson's Hill moorhens and herons
frequent the waters and the occasional kingfisher is reported. The
churchyard and the Town cemetery in particular with its variety
of conifers and broadleaved trees, attract owls, pigeons and such
birds as goldcrests and treecreepers, which, like nuthatches, are
sometimes sighted in Bingham gardens. |
Great spotted woodpecker (Photo: Brayton
Holt)
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Whilst swallows are less frequently seen, house martins
and swifts still return each summer streaking across the market place
or circling the church. Many birds that once lived in woodlands are now
frequent visitors to Bingham gardens. These include blackbirds, robins,
chaffinches, hedge and house sparrows, tits, wrens, song thrushes and
so on, most of which are all-year round residents. Others such as starlings
may be a mixed flock of English and Scandinavian birds especially in the
winter. Collared doves, whose arrival in this country dates back less
than fifty years, are frequently heard and seen in most parts of the Town.
Greenfinch (Photo: Brayton Holt) |
Kestrel(Photo: Brayton Holt) |
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