Week 7 - 08 - 14 February 2026 (Mallard and Treecreeper added)

I made it out on the patch 5 times this week, and had a couple of dry dog walks! 4 of my trips were around the Cranbrook part of the patch, and a couple of these only short sections (fitting into a lunch break), but on the morning of Saturday 14 February, on a day off walk I had a wonderful and fruitful walk around the Rockbeare section (nipping through the closed road at the northern end of Gribble Lane).

The theme of this week has definitely been a notable increase in breeding behaviours. In addition to the songs of various male birds which have been getting going for a few weeks now, I've been able to add some other observations about the Robin courtship display seen last week. 

This week I've seen "active" courtship between Collared Doves, although as with many courtships from the dove / pigeon group it feels like mild avarian harassment. The males basically pursue the females while strutting around, bobbing their head and cooing loudly, the females fly away, only for the male to follow her within seconds and repeat on the next rooftop. I've also seen my first evidence of nest prospecting or construction of the year, with me able to follow a Blue Tit carrying nesting material into a small gap underneath the fascias of eastern gable end of No. 8 White Gate, Cranbrook.

Of my walks this week, a few bits of note, I've seen a Carrion Crow with significant white in the wing. This is called "leucism" and can be caused by either a genetic condition, or a nutritional deficiency (too little protein in the diet). It's always nice to have a mark to identify a bird as an individual, and I'll keep a lookout for this guy in the coming weeks.  

So Saturday morning was glorious, around freezing, still, with clear skies. I got out about 20 minutes before sunrise and did my one excursion of the week through the Rockbeare part of my patch. Following my introduction to Percy Wakely Woods in week 6, I thought I'd talk about Gribble Lane in week 7.

Gribble Lane is one of my favourite bits of the patch, it is a wonderful single track lane between Devon banked hedgerows, starting on a low ridge line to the north, and then dropping down (via a short fairly steep hill) to various watercourses. It is mostly surrounded by arable land (mixed crops and grazing), but various patches of woodland with dead standing trees, plenty of mature trees, some boggy field edges (that are left fallow), a stream, and event a hay meadow.   

Things are shortly to change though, with housing planned (as part of the Cranbrook extension) for the arable land either side of the northern end of the lane. But I'm hopeful the wooded margins and large mature trees will be mostly protected in the plans. I've managed 25-30 species on Gribble Lane within 30 minutes a few times.

Here are a few picture from Gribble Lane on the morning of the 14th February 2026. They give a good idea of the scenery and standard lane, banked hedges and a good scattering of mature tress both on the lane, and in the fields either side.

On this day, my walk around the slightly more rural southeast portion patch was fruitful on the birding front, I saw 33 species, and many in good numbers. I saw my first Mallard of the year (on the patch) a male flying north over the Inghams Sports Pitches just before sunrise. We commonly see Mallards in Cranbrook post breeding in the late Summer and Autumn, when they appear to feed in the various shallow margins of the ponds and lake we have.

I then got my first Eurasian Treecreeper of the year, half way down the hill on Gribble Lane. Initially I heard the high pitched calls in the field entrance to the west half way down the hill, I managed to find it almost directly above me in the binoculars, just working its way along a branch, probing away for insects / grubs.

They are not a species you tend to see unless you are keyed into their calls, and on the lookout for them. As they blend in very well with the bark of the trees they are commonly working their way around. But they are the only type of treecreeper we have in the UK, although the Channel Islands have the similar looking but very different sounding Short-toed Treecreeper resident. Last year I found a Eurasian Treecreeper nesting site on the patch, so I'll be keen to see if they use the same site again in 2026.

So following this week, which ended on the highlight of this wonderful Saturday morning stroll adding 2 more species to the patch list for 2026, the total now stands at 49 for the year so far.

I've only now got the Feral Pigeon, Grey Heron, Mistle Thrush, and Kingfisher as my daytime semi-regulars (that I tend to see every couple of months) left to find before the summer migrants start to arrive. So I might be turning to the night in the coming weeks, as I know I've got Barn Owls and Tawny Owls on the patch, and have been informed there may be Little Owls just to the northeast. So I'll look to see a few of these species in the coming few weeks.