The Varied Life of a Dead Tree
Every birdwatcher has their own local patch which is watched sometimes two or three times a week or more. I am no exception and my nearest local patch is Gunners Park in Shoebury. Being the author of this website, I am always interested in reports of birds in other local patches and it is very interesting to see how the species change over the course of a year.
Almost everyone I know can tell you the species that occur on their local patches and a lot of people keep garden lists and this has got me wondering how specific this can go. I can tell you what species have been seen in the last five years in the whole of Gunners Park but what about just one area - the pond maybe, the EWT reserve or even the sea wall within the park. How about narrowing this down not to one area, not to one spot but down to just one single dead tree!
At the end of Gunners Park by the last bridge there is an open, concreted area that leads down to the fence of the EWT reserve, on the right of this area is a single dead tree. To my knowledge this tree has been there for the last five years, I know this because there is always a bird or two sitting in it and I always have a look to see what species they are.
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The dead tree in the centre of the picture |
A dead tree like this provides all kinds of advantages for birds and it is why there is hardly a moment when there is not a bird in its branches.. The tree can be used as a staging post for birds flying from the park to the EWT reserve and back, the tree can provide a wonderful singing post for a bird that wishes to attract a mate and wants to be seen and heard by any females in the area and, finally, a dead tree like this is a superb vantage point for a bird to watch for raptors that may be approaching.
When we launched this page we asked if we could make 25 different species in one year, well, thanks to your sightings, on the 10th August 2004 we made the 25. The list is below.
- Kestrel
- Wood Pigeon
- Collared Dove
- Green Woodpecker
- Meadow Pipit
- Wren
- Dunnock
- Robin
- Stonechat
- Song Thrush
- Blackbird
- Common Whitethroat
- Goldcrest
- Great Tit
- Blue Tit
- Long-tailed Tit
- Magpie
- Carrion Crow
- Starling
- House Sparrow
- Linnet
- Greenfinch
- Goldfinch
- Great Spotted Woodpecker
- Swallow
Quite an impressive list for one (very popular) dead tree I am sure.? Can we possibly make 28?! Over to you...
We would very much appreciate any sightings of different birds in our ex tree and would love you to send them to us (you can use the feedback form on our Latest Sightings page or even email me at: . Please make your email subject heading 'dead tree bird'
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A single Dunnock in the South East Essex RSPB's adopted dead tree Send us all of your dead tree sightings! |
Click here for an Aerial shot of the park, the dead tree is to the right of the circular area above the jetty.
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