🦆 Cotwall End Valley nature diary: June 2025
June 1: Morning walk in the lower valley. Good views of a muntjac in woodland. Two jay sightings of birds in flight. Grey wagtail on ground alongside the bottom pond. Swift sightings of one, one, two birds. Female sparrowhawk high over woodland. Early evening walk in the immediate area. Four swifts over the green. Lesser black-backed gull on the telephone pole in Longfellow with a second bird circling. I’ve found out why it’s always there, as the lady in the bungalow opposite puts scraps of food out for the foxes. Letting the dog out at 10.00 p.m. I heard (but didn’t see) a little owl in the school then on to the land beyond.
June 2: Three separate common buzzards soaring over the immediate area, one mobbed by a carrion crow. Three swifts over the green. Young well-developed carrion crow sitting on the edge of the nest in garden tree off the green. I’ve been watching this site since the parents first began to build.
June 3: Late dusk walk in lower valley. Badger and muntjac in woodland. Song thrush singing. One swift high over the valley. Walking back home, two young foxes sitting on the lane watching me. Observed a badger for a prolonged period of time, feeding on a lawn in Wordsworth.
June 4: Two pairs of ravens, one hundred metres apart, high in flight over the valley. All heading in the same direction. Greenfinch calling in Shakespeare. Three lesser black-backed gulls in Longfellow, one on the drive of the lady who feeds the foxes, waiting for food. Badger crossed High Arcal Road late dusk.
June 5: Four starlings in flight across Wordsworth. Two carrion crows’ tails showing from the nest in the garden off the green. Twelve swifts over the eastern ridge, the most seen this year. Late dusk walk in lower valley. Two foxes in the lane and Wordsworth. Badger passed in front of me in the woodland. Muntjac in woodland. Three song thrushes and one mistle thrush singing.
June 6: Two lesser black-backed gulls in Longfellow, waiting for the lady who feeds the foxes to put food out. Late dusk walk in the lower valley. Badger in woodland. Muntjac grazing on meadow. Fox on the lane, near Wordsworth. Four song thrushes and two mistle thrushes singing in woodland.
June 7: Four lesser black-backed gulls waiting, early evening, in Longfellow for the lady to put food out for the foxes. Well-developed young carrion crow on the edge of the nest in the garden off the green. Two swifts low over Wordsworth. Muntjac calling from woodland on the western slope.
June 8: Seven starlings feeding on grass in Longfellow in the morning. A walk around the immediate area where we live, early evening. The regular lesser black-backed gull on the telephone pole in Longfellow. Eleven swifts over the golf course. Not evident with the naked eye but when I looked through the binoculars at a common buzzard, they were there. Collared dove in flight across the lane.
June 9: Late dusk walk in lower valley. Very quiet as far as the birds were concerned, just a couple of robins in brief song and a few wood pigeons calling. Pair of mallards on bottom pond. Two rabbits on heath. Fox crossed the lane near Wordsworth.
June 10: Morning walk around immediate area. Three single swift sightings. Evening walk in the local area. Good to see oxeye daisies in the first ride off the lane, albeit just two. Five swifts over eastern ridge. Greenfinch singing from tree in Wordsworth. Several lesser black-backed gulls circling over the valley.
June 11: Collared dove on the lane.
June 12: Early evening walk around immediate area. Two lesser black-backed gulls in low flight. Goldfinch singing in tree on the green. Usual colony of chirping house sparrows in dense shrubs on the green. Two swifts visible over western ridge.
June 13: Early evening walk in the immediate area. Two singing goldfinches perched on aerials in Wordsworth. Lesser black-backed gull on telephone pole in Longfellow. Several others in low flight over the wider area. Swifts 1,2,2. Noisy house sparrows in privet in Browning. Carrion Crow, well-developed, and sitting outside the nest in the garden off the green. Greenfinch singing in Wordsworth.
June 14: Morning walk in the immediate area. Several lesser black-backed gulls in flight. House sparrows in the dense privet in Browning.
June 15: Dusk walk around the local area. Twelve swifts in total. Several lesser black-backed gulls in low flight. Lots of blackbirds singing.
June 16: From Coleridge, I got excited when I saw a flock of c.40 birds circling the area. As they came towards me though (I didn’t have binoculars), I could see they were just feral pigeons.
June 17: Morning walk around immediate area. One swift over Wordsworth. Nineteen gulls (16 lesser black-backed gulls, 3 herring gulls) on or above the green. Evening walk, first hobby in the valley ever. In SW flight over Straits.
June 18: Dusk walk in lower valley. Muntjac near bottom pond. Two rabbits on heath. Adult badger on lawn in Wordsworth. I thought a black and cat at first but then realised it was a baby badger that appeared from the hedgerow on the lane.
June 19: Late morning walk around the heath area of the lower valley. Lots of speckled wood in the ride off the entry point from the lane, also a comma. Juvenile robins and great tits. Treecreeper alongside the brook.
June 20: Late dusk walk in lower valley. Fox and badger seen within yards of entry point. Two rabbits on the heath. Mistle thrush and song thrush singing.
June 21: Walk in lower valley. Lots of meadow browns around the heath. Brimstone in woodland open area. Muntjac showing really well at first entry point from the lane.
June 22: Greenfinch calling from Coleridge in the rain. Lesser black-backed gull in Longfellow eating scraps on the pavement that a lady puts out every evening for foxes.
June 23: Dusk walk around immediate area. 25 swifts visible from around the valley. Lesser black-backed gull on the green, two in high flight. Two pairs of starlings in low flight.
June 24: Late walk, in darkness, along the lane. A young muntjac came from a lawn in Wordsworth, crossed the lane and disappeared through the hedgerow.
June 25: Two calling ravens circling low over Wordsworth. Four calling ravens over lower woodland. Female sparrowhawk soaring high. Speckled woods in the first ride.
The video below features badgers and woodland as well as extolling the virtues of the great outdoors on your mental health.
June 26: Morning walk around the immediate area. Lots of gulls, mostly lesser black-backed gulls with two herring gulls and one great black-backed gull. Three single swift sightings.
June 27: Evening walk in the immediate area. Seven swift sightings. Noisy house sparrows in dense privet on the green and Tennyson. Lesser black-backed gull waiting in Longfellow for the food scraps that are put out every evening for foxes.
June 28: Morning walk in the immediate area. Four swift sightings. Four starlings in flight across Wordsworth. Greenfinch calling from area around the church. Common buzzard mobbed by a carrion crow over the lane.
June 29: Male house sparrow on church car park. Most times I’m at church, I can hear a greenfinch singing but today I saw it, at the top of the tall car park conifer.
June 30: Late dusk walk in the lower valley. A brief glimpse of a muntjac, disappearing in woodland. A very vocal (but not seen) muntjac deep in woodland.