Monday 29 July 2002

Survey of breeding birds in woods around Whippendell Wood, Watford, Herts, UK (2002)

The following is a personal survey by means of dawn visits to the Whippendell Wood area W of Watford, Herts, UK in May/June 2002

Dates and times

11 May 5.25 – 7.50am (145 minutes)

25 May 4.25 – 6.30am (125 minutes)

1 June 5.25 – 7.45am (140 minutes)

4 June 4.05 – 6.30am (145 minutes)

8 June 4.05 – 6.35am (150 minutes)

Area covered

Survey covered all wooded parts of Whippendell Wood and Jacotts Hill area (c. 1.5 miles x 1.5 miles, or 580 hectares) (map), i.e. the region bounded by:

* North: Redhall Lane, Fire Tree Lane and Grove Mill Lane (but including wooded area in Westwood Quarry as far as M25)

* West: Sarratt Road (but excluding the residential area around Redheath)

* South: Little Green Lane and Rousebarn Lane

* East: Grand Union Canal, but including wooded areas on east bank at the west end of Cassiobury Park

i.e. including Whippendell Wood, Lees Wood, Cartpath Wood, Birch Spring, Harrocks Wood, Merlin's Wood, Merlin's Spring, Newland's Spring, Round Newland's Spring, Dell Wood, Waterdell Spring, Thick Spring, Long Newland's Spring, unnamed isolated wood NW of junction of Rouse Barn and Little Green Lane and all of wood on West Herts Gold Course, and alongside Grand Union Canal (following terminology of Watford Street A-Z atlas by Geographers' A-Z Map Company Ltd.)

The true area covered was very close to one square mile, and comprised almost entirely woodland of one sort or another.

Coverage

There may have been some double-counting due to mobile birds moving (e.g. tit flocks and woodpeckers) but most records refer to territorial males in song and the overall counts will in most cases be underestimates due to birds not singing and areas missed. For example, noticeably fewer singing Blackbirds and Robins were recorded from 2 hours after sunrise on June visits.

KEY:

Bold - Numbers are totals of territorial (singing) males, family parties or discrete locations were birds making other calls were heard (i.e. approximate number of territories)*

Normal - Numbers are total individuals seen/heard*

Blue - less than "average"

Red - more than "average"

Green - much more than "average"

Shaded - noteworthy (others can be excluded in many cases due to small sample size)

* Normalisation in lower table is simply achieved by dividing totals by total number of territories/individuals in each region






Regions


Species
Canal Jacotts Golf course Whippendell Waterdell Harrocks Lees

Total 333 176 118 343 163 60 134
Wren 188 50 19 11 50 29 8 21
Robin 155 23 22 13 47 27 11 12
Blackbird 141 21 23 12 43 19 5 18
Wood Pigeon 126 24 29 9 38 11 2 13
Song Thrush 96 24 16 4 33 9 2 8
Chaffinch 70 16 10 7 14 6 6 11
Blackcap 62 15 7 5 16 9 3 7
Great Tit 57 8 7 14 14 8 2 4
Blue Tit 56 16 5 11 10 4 2 8
Carrion Crow 47 13 5 3 5 16 2 3
Goldcrest 42 9 2 1 20 6 2 2
Jackdaw 41 25 2 5 2 1 4 2
Great Spotted Woodpecker 31 4 4 6 10 4 1 2
Coal Tit 30 1 1 2 12 1 3 10
Mallard 26 20 1 1 4 0 0 0
Magpie 19 3 6 5 2 3 0 0
Starling 18 16 0 2 0 0 0 0
Chiffchaff 13 2 1 1 4 1 1 3
Stock Dove 11 9 0 0 2 0 0 0
Hedge Sparrow 10 3 4 0 0 1 1 1
Mistle Thrush 6 2 0 0 2 0 1 1
Long-tailed Tit 7 1 1 2 2 0 1 0
Treecreeper 7 1 1 0 3 2 0 0
Green Woodpecker 6 1 2 0 1 0 1 1
Tawny Owl 8 1 1 0 4 1 0 1
Jay 9 4 3 0 1 0 0 1
Skylark 4 0 0 1 0 2 1 0
Common Whitethroat 4 1 0 1 0 1 0 1
Grey Heron 4 3 0 0 0 0 0 1
Swift 4 4 0 0 0 0 0 0
Marsh Tit 3 1 0 0 1 0 1 0
Pheasant 3 0 0 0 1 2 0 0
Goldfinch 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0
Sparrowhawk 3 0 2 0 0 0 0 1
Canada Goose 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
Moorhen 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
Greenfinch 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 1
Nuthatch 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 1
Collared Dove 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Cuckoo 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
Cormorant 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
Common Tern 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Garden Warbler 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Swallow 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
Rook 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
Barn Owl 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Totals 1328 333 176 118 343 163 60 134









Mammals







Muntjac deer 8 1 0 0 3 0 4 0
Pipistrelle bat 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Red fox 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1

Normalised totals (in order to reveal trends in distribution across different parts of the wood).






Regions


Species
Canal Jacotts Golf course Whippendell Waterdell Harrocks Lees

Total 333 176 118 343 163 60 134
Barn Owl 1 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
Wren 188 1.0575 0.7626 0.6585 1.0297 1.2568 0.9418 1.1070
Robin 155 0.5900 1.0710 0.9439 1.1740 1.4192 1.5708 0.7673
Hedge Sparrow 10 1.1928 3.0182 0.0000 0.0000 0.8147 2.2133 0.9910
Treecreeper 7 0.5680 1.0779 0.0000 1.6593 2.3278 0.0000 0.0000
Blackbird 141 0.5922 1.2308 0.9578 1.1807 1.0979 0.7849 1.2652
Song Thrush 96 0.9940 1.2576 0.4689 1.3309 0.7638 0.4611 0.8259
Mistle Thrush 6 1.3253 0.0000 0.0000 1.2906 0.0000 3.6889 1.6517
Blackcap 62 0.9619 0.8519 0.9076 0.9992 1.1827 1.0710 1.1189
Garden Warbler 1 3.9760 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
Chiffchaff 13 0.6117 0.5804 0.8657 1.1913 0.6267 1.7026 2.2870
Goldcrest 42 0.8520 0.3593 0.2680 1.8437 1.1639 1.0540 0.4719
Common Whitethroat 4 0.9940 0.0000 2.8136 0.0000 2.0368 0.0000 2.4776
Great Tit 57 0.5580 0.9266 2.7642 0.9509 1.1435 0.7766 0.6955
Blue Tit 56 1.1360 0.6737 2.2107 0.6914 0.5819 0.7905 1.4158
Coal Tit 30 0.1325 0.2515 0.7503 1.5487 0.2716 2.2133 3.3035
Long-tailed Tit 7 0.5680 1.0779 3.2155 1.1062 0.0000 3.1619 0.0000
Marsh Tit 3 1.3253 0.0000 0.0000 1.2906 0.0000 7.3778 0.0000
Chaffinch 70 0.9088 1.0779 1.1254 0.7743 0.6983 1.8971 1.5574
Pheasant 3 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 1.2906 5.4315 0.0000 0.0000
Grey Heron 4 2.9820 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 2.4776
Cormorant 1 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 3.8717 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
Canada Goose 2 3.9760 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
Mallard 26 3.0585 0.2902 0.4329 0.5956 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
Moorhen 2 3.9760 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
Sparrowhawk 3 0.0000 5.0303 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 3.3035
Common Tern 1 3.9760 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
Tawny Owl 8 0.5680 0.0000 0.0000 2.2124 1.1639 0.0000 1.4158
Wood Pigeon 126 0.7573 1.7367 0.8039 1.1677 0.7113 0.3513 1.0225
Stock Dove 11 3.2531 0.0000 0.0000 0.7039 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
Collared Dove 1 3.9760 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
Great Spotted Woodpecker 31 0.5130 0.9736 2.1782 1.2489 1.0513 0.7140 0.6394
Green Woodpecker 6 0.6627 2.5152 0.0000 0.6453 0.0000 3.6889 1.6517
Nuthatch 2 0.0000 0.0000 5.6271 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 4.9552
Swift 4 3.9760 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
Swallow 1 0.0000 0.0000 11.2542 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
Cuckoo 1 0.0000 7.5455 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
Skylark 4 0.0000 0.0000 2.8136 0.0000 4.0736 5.5333 0.0000
Carrion Crow 47 1.0998 0.8027 0.7184 0.4119 2.7735 0.9418 0.6326
Jackdaw 41 2.4244 0.3681 1.3725 0.1889 0.1987 2.1593 0.4834
Rook 1 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 3.8717 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
Magpie 19 0.6278 2.3828 2.9616 0.4075 1.2864 0.0000 0.0000
Jay 9 1.7671 2.5152 0.0000 0.4302 0.0000 0.0000 1.1012
Starling 18 3.5343 0.0000 1.2505 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
Goldfinch 3 3.9760 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
Greenfinch 2 1.9880 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 4.9552
Totals 1328 69.4127 38.3775 47.3628 35.1079 32.0757 43.0943 43.0143









Mammals







Muntjac 1 0.4970 0.0000 0.0000 1.4519 0.0000 11.0667 0.0000
Bat 1 3.9760 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
Fox 1 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 9.9104