The nest box scheme was reasonably successful this year in as much as nearly all the boxes were used.

The set of six boxes on the green keepers shed designed to attract House Sparrows succeeded in providing a home for a brood of Great Tits! House Sparrows were once extremely common, but over the last few years they have decreased rapidly due mainly to loss of breeding habitat: new houses have no eaves for them to nest in.

Box No 3 by the entrance to the old toilets next to the 10^th Tee had a brood of 3 Great Tits.

Box No4 down the bank to the right of the tenth tee produced 10 Blue Tits.

Whilst inspecting this box I was delighted to see a Tawny Owl perched in a tree very close by.

Box No5 to the right of the 9^th green had 4 Blue Tits.

Box No6 to left of the 9^th Tee was a special design for Tree Creepers but was in fact used by Blue Tits which subsequently abandoned the nest. With hind sight, the location was wrong, so it will be moved to somewhere more suitable for next year.

Box No7 in the copse between the 6th & 7^th fairways had a brood of Blue Tits but they had flown before the day of counting.

Box No8 in the copse to the left of the 4th Tee produced another brood of 10 Blue Tits.

Incidentally after the brood had fledged a Great Spotted Woodpecker took a liking to this box and did a lot of damage, so much so the box was taken down and will be repaired and replaced.

Box No9 between the 15^th & 16^th fairways had a brood of 6 Blue Tits.

Box No10 was on the east side of the club house and produced 6 Blue Tits but has now been removed by the builders.

The usual Crows nest to right of the 9^th Tee high up in a conifer had three young, but the most interesting nest was a Wrens nest behind the rope for the lifebelt on the side of the path from the men’s 12^th Tee.

As you will now be aware there are very few open nesting birds on the course because of the vermin Grey Squirrels which eat young birds and eggs. There is such serious concern about the damage Grey Squirrels do to trees and indigenous wild life, not to mention the effect on our beautiful Red Squirrel population in other parts of the country, that the Government body “Natural England” is  considering a selected culling. Despite this problem there were actually two successful broods of Greenfinch in the conifers by the practice putting green, so all is not lost.

The two other two birds that I know of that bred on the course were to the left of the ninth green.

Green Woodpecker nested and produced young in a hole in a tree to the left of the ninth green next to Sow brook, and a pair of Little Owl nested nearby but more towards the 9^th Tee.

There were two recent sightings in October. One was of three migrating Whooper Swans flying in a southerly direction over the course. These swans come from the Arctic region to winter here before returning in spring to breed. They have a distinctive yellow bill unlike our resident Mute Swan which has an orange bill. 

The other sighting was of the rare Lesser Spotted Woodpecker which flew over the 11^th green towards the 3^rd green. This Woodpecker is much smaller than the ubiquitous Great Spotted Woodpecker and instead of having large white vertical flashes on the back it has small horizontal stripes.

Another first for the golf club was a Little Grebe seen in early November on the pond in front of the men’s 12th Tee .

A fairly rare mammal these days is the Hare but a young Hare called a Leveret was observed on the course in October by Alex McLay. The decline of Hares is due to the usual loss of habitat and also different farming methods from years ago.

I would always be interested to hear from anyone who has any information of breeding birds on the course or any other interesting wildlife sightings. 

Brian Ankers

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