A History Lesson

With a little bit of time on my hands I headed of to Cricklade's North Meadow in the hope of seeing the Black Swan, which has been there for the past few days. But as luck would have it, it was gone. Another day perhaps.

However there was plenty to see on the flooded meadows and neighbouring fields, and when I say plenty, I mean lots.....  There were at least 280 Golden Plover, 300+ Lapwing and 400+ Black-headed Gulls. In amongst them were 11 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 3 Herring Gulls, 2 Shelduck and a pair of Oystercatchers.

In the neighbouring fields I counted 6 Little Egrets, 3 Mute Swans and at least another 100 Black-headed Gulls feeding alongside them.

A Sparrowhawk was also having a field day, with several attempts to take Redwing and Blackbirds that were feeding on the Hawthorns in the hedgerow alongside the meadow. I must have seen in at least 4 times as it criss-crossed the field, putting up the gulls and plovers each time.

Birds Recorded: 6 Little Egret, 3 Mute Swan, 2 Shelduck, 4 Mallard, 1 female Sparrowhawk, 2 Moorhen, 5 Coot, 2 Oystercatcher, c.280 Golden Plover, 300+ Lapwing, 500+ Black-headed Gull, 3 Herring Gull, 11 Lesser Black-backed Gull, 12 Wood Pigeon, 1 Grey Wagtail, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, 5 Fieldfare, 50+ Redwing, Song Thrush, 1 Chiffchaff, 2 Goldcrest, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Wren, Magpie, Rook, Carrion Crow, Jackdaw, Starling, House Sparrow, Chaffinch, Goldfinch and 2
Reed Bunting.

Not the best of notice boards, but it refers to North Meadow as "The Basin" or is North Meadow separate!

The Key to the above

Welcome to North Meadow

More information boards

A view across, I presume "The Basin"

A very flooded North Meadow

and the same looking north

You can just make out a female Sparrowhawk (centre of frame) as she continually harassed the winter thrushes, and upset the gulls and plovers as she did so

A pair of Coots make the most of the flooded meadow.

My first Shelduck of the year. An amazing size difference. I'm assuming the larger bird on the right is the male!

An immature Mute Swan

My first attempt at digiscoping, using a Viking Smart Phone Adaptor, a Galaxy Note 4 and my Kowa TSN 821M Scope with a 20 - 60 zoom lens. So that there was no shakiness when I took the photo, the Camera Phone was set to voice control, using either the commands Cheese, Smile or Shoot. I used the latter. Cheese or Smile, really!!

Not brilliant on this Oystercatcher

This was back to the Canon SX50 with the pair of Oystercatchers flying from left to right in the foreground.

Canon again and zoomed in on the first Oystercatcher.

Back to the Digi-scope with a few Golden Plover in amongst Black-headed Gulls and Lapwing.

Not too bad with the Digi-scope on these 2 Lapwings.

A few Golden Plover with the Digi-scope

And again

Back to the camera (as are all the remaining photos and video below). Here there are several Golden Plover again.

Just a few of the Golden Plover in flight.

Two drake Mallard head off down the River Churn towards the River Thames.

From the bridge that crosses the River Churn. The field beyond is quite saturated, but the gulls, egrets and Swans are finding it very much to their liking.

A Little Egret probes away with the Black-headed Gulls looking on.

Another Little Egret is about to be mobbed by the gulls.

Safety in numbers, 3 Little Egrets make their way along the edge of the field.

Close to main road a real "chatter" from at least 50 Redwing. Really nice to hear.

One of 6 Little Egrets in the field on your left as you come out of Cricklade, heading towards the A419 north.

A Little Bit of History

Now the history bit, as told to me by a lovely gentleman called John. There's a field on your right just before you come out of Cricklade. As you pass over the River Thames and before the next bridge which crosses part of the River Churn, the field on your right has lots of troughs and rises which believe it or not are "Dry Docks." Many hundreds of years ago boats were built here and if you look into the field there are at least 3 Dry Docks.

Below is an aerial photograph of the field and the next photo is my crude attempt to show where the boats were built before they were released onto the Thames.

Here is the field with the old "Dry Docks" still visible. If you look very closely you can just make out 3 dark green patches running through the field. (Photo courtesy of Google Earth)

Here is more crude overlay, showing three Dry Docks that are actually more visible at ground level than my examples shown above. (Photo courtesy of Google Earth)

The field from ground level. Still not the best shot to see the docks. Its actually far better to walk along the fence and see how evident they are.