Badby Woods and the natural history of the Badby area. Contents: Badby Woods | Bluebell Teas | Birds: successes over 200 years | Birds: more recent changes | Bird survey 1946-50 | References (birds) | Flowers | Trees | Plant catalogue 1840 | Back to Badby Woods & natural history overview | Back to History Section overview
Some bird success stories that took up to two hundred years to happen – Buzzard, Raven and Red Kite…
Most of the changes to populations of birds found around Badby during the last two hundred years seem to have occurred in more recent times.
Lord Lilford’s “Notes on the birds of Northamptonshire and Neighbourhood“, gives a good picture of the birds that could be seen in Northamptonshire at the end of the nineteenth century without being specific about Badby.
Of the red kite he says, “I am sorry to say that… … the species has been all but extinct in our district for nearly fifty years”. Similarly of the buzzard, he says “… (the buzzard) in this county shared the fate of the kite and is now a rare bird with us.” He goes on to say that in the early part of the 19th century, both buzzard and kite were common in Northamptonshire and buzzards bred commonly in woods.
One of the factors in these birds dying out was undoubtedly human persecution. However Lilford thinks that extreme winter weather may also have contributed in the case of the red kite.
The largest member of the crow family to be found in Britain, the raven, is recorded as meeting a similar fate “although this species was formerly common and well known in our county… …authenticated notices of its occurrence in recent years… …are very few and far between.”
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| Common Buzzard (photo: Barry Boswell) | The Raven virtually disappeared from this area in the 19th century but has returned in the 21st (photo: Barry Boswell) | Red Kites were present 200 years ago but died out until nearby reintroduction programmes saw them spread back into the Badby area (photo: Barry Boswell) |
Badby residents growing up in the village in the 1950s didn’t see these birds. Thanks to reduced persecution and possibly more favourable conditions such as the increased availability of roadkill, there was a gradual spread of the buzzard from its strongholds of the West Country and Wales during the 1980s. Up until the 1990s ravens were still very rare this far east. A raven seen in Northamptonshire in 1990 was the fourth one in twenty years. However, by the turn of the century ravens were starting to appear more regularly and in the last few years up to now there has been an explosion in numbers of both buzzard and raven here and across the whole of England. A walk around Badby today will almost certainly produce a sighting of a buzzard hanging in the sky above the village. Ravens are not so widespread but recently I counted no less than twenty ravens at once, high above, circling in the sky.
The lack of red kites noted by Lord Lilford at the end of the nineteenth century was replicated across the whole of Britain. By the 1960s there were only about twenty pairs left in their last stronghold in Wales. There was growing support for a reintroduction programme to help the recovery of the red kite population in Britain. This was first realised at the end of the 1980s when red kites were released in Buckinghamshire and Scotland over a five year period. Kites started breeding in these areas in 1992 and other release programmes followed including in 1995 in the East Midlands. As a result of all the breeding success, birds have spread out from these original areas and in the last few years kites have started to appear in the skies above Badby woods and occasionally Badby village.
It seems likely that all three species will be breeding again in the Badby area in the near future, if not already.
… and many other big changes to Badby birds in the last seventy years.
Going back to the end of the nineteenth century Lord Lilford has interesting observations about some other birds that were much more commonly seen at the time.
For example, of the lesser spotted woodpecker he says “…(it) is certainly now the most common of our three species of woodpecker in this neighbourhood, and we have observed it in every part of the county with which we have any acquaintance”. He’s probably referring particularly to the area around Lilford where he lived but it suggests that the bird might also have been common in the Badby area at this time.
He says the following about the spotted flycatcher. “This little summer visitor is so common and so well known in our county that a very few words will suffice with regard to it.”
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| Lesser-spotted woodpecker – possibly the commonest local woodpecker in the 19th century but now very rare (photo: Barry Boswell) | Spotted flycatchers – a rare sight today (photos: Barry Boswell) | |
He shows no concern for the cuckoo and describes the redstart as “by no means uncommon”. Starlings are “exceedingly abundant” and of jackdaws, “this amusing but most pernicious bird is extremely common in our county, and probably only too well known to most of my readers”. So that last description at least sounds not too different from what would be said today in Badby!
Ravens, buzzards and red kites were definitely not on the scene after the Second World War. However we know a lot about the bird life in and around Badby woods thanks to the work of Eric Simms (1921 – 2009), a distinguished ornithologist and pioneer of studies of breeding bird populations. His parents lived on Church Green, Badby and in the late 1940s he spent time in the village carrying out an annual breeding bird census in Badby woods. Simms published many books about birds and his ‘Woodland Birds’ volume in the noted New Naturalist series of natural history books contains much information about Badby Woods as being a typical example of pedunculate oak woodland. He gives examples of other woodlands that had similar diversity and density of birds at that time. Included in the book are the results of his surveys in Badby Woods. They show the breeding population by year of each species over the years 1946 to 1950. It can be seen that at this time as well as the more familiar birds such as robin, blackbird and blue tit there are many and varied species to be found. These include tree pipit, nuthatch, marsh tit, spotted flycatcher, wood warbler (one year only), lesser spotted woodpecker and cuckoo.
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| The cuckoo – heard every spring in Badby until the last few years reflecting its decline all over the area (photo: Barry Boswell) | Starling and House sparrow – common everywhere in the 1950s but less so today (photos: Barry Boswell) | Female house sparrow (photo: Barry Boswell) | |
Badby villagers such as Keith Bull and George Hartshorn can remember spending a lot of time in Badby woods whilst growing up in the village during the 1950s. This was in the days before 24 hour multi-channel TV, personal computers, i-pads and social media provided alternative distractions! It was also in the days before bird nesting was considered unacceptable although only one egg was ever taken from a nest. Raising young birds was also popular with tawny owls, jackdaws and even jays being fed and looked after, perhaps living in a garden shed. Keith raised a young jay for about a year and was able to call it to him. He was due to have it featured in the Daventry Weekly Express but unfortunately it flew off never to return the week before he was going to be interviewed!
Keith remembers lots of small birds – house sparrows, starlings etc. being abundant everywhere and nothing like the number of jackdaws around the village. Wood pigeons were mainly seen in the woods and only bred around harvest time. They weren’t seen in gardens. The call of the cuckoo and young cuckoos were familiar around Badby. Other memories were of all three species of woodpecker being found, goldfinches nesting at the end of branches and once a snow bunting appearing in a back garden. Tawny and little owls were to be seen in the woods but not barn owls.
Moving a little nearer to the present day, part of Badby Woods became an SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) in 1985. The citation for this event mentions breeding redstart, wood warbler, tree pipit and nuthatch so some of the special breeding birds from the 1940s and 1950s were certainly still present forty years ago.
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| Green woodpecker and Great spotted woodpecker – commonly seen in field, wood and garden today – unlike the sparrow-sized lesser-spotted woodpecker that has virtually disappeared from this area (photos: Barry Boswell) | Snow bunting – one turned up in a Badby back garden in the 1950s. A very rare sight! (photo: Barry Boswell) | The Jay – one was raised by Keith Bull in the 1950s (photo: Barry Boswell) | |
Around twenty years ago when we first moved to Badby cuckoos could be heard each spring but have gradually become less frequent and for the last few years they have been absent. This reflects the national trend where cuckoos have declined by about 50% over the last twenty years.
Similarly spotted flycatchers could be found easily in late spring around the village, darting forth from a perch to catch flying insects and then returning to the same perch. Today they are a rare sight, probably only migrating birds passing through Badby. Once again this is a summer visitor to Britain which has declined by about 50% in twenty years and nearly 90% since 1970! Redstarts were still breeding in Badby woods in 1990 but now unfortunately this colourful migrant is only seen passing through in spring or autumn. Two species of woodpecker, great spotted and green are thriving around Badby and the rest of the county but lesser spotted woodpeckers are now a rare sight anywhere in Northamptonshire. I haven’t seen one for over ten years in Badby Woods.
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| The jackdaw – always common but even more around the village nowadays (photo: Barry Boswell) | Nuthatch and Redstart – breeding in Badby woods in the 1940s and in the case of the nuthatch still there today (photos: Barry Boswell) | |
Two birds that certainly seem to have become much more common and certainly more visible around Badby are wood pigeon and jackdaw. Keith Bull’s recollection about wood pigeons only breeding at harvest time has changed as now they seem to breed all the year round. Jackdaws are everywhere around the village and sometimes seem to be perched on every chimney pot! Two traditionally common birds, house sparrow and starling are much less widespread than in the 1950s. Keith can remember sparrows being everywhere and starlings commonly bred in the village. While they are both around in some numbers they’re certainly less widespread than in the past. This isn’t surprising when you look at the national trend. The British population of house sparrows has gone from thirty million in the 1960s to only about ten million now although in the last few years there has been a bit of a recovery. Starling numbers, similarly have reduced by up to eighty percent in the last fifty years.
Badby Woods Breeding Birds Survey 1946-50 (Eric Simms)
| Species | 1946 | 1947 | 1948 | 1949 | 1950 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carrion Crow | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Jackdaw | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 |
| Jay | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | |
| Starling | 14 | 12 | 14 | 13 | 14 |
| Bullfinch | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Chaffinch | 28 | 22 | 29 | 30 | 34 |
| Tree Pipit | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Treecreeper | 15 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 14 |
| Nuthatch | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Great Tit | 23 | 16 | 19 | 20 | 22 |
| Blue Tit | 35 | 25 | 29 | 34 | 34 |
| Coal Tit | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Marsh Tit | 6 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 5 |
| Willow Tit | 1 | 2 | |||
| Long-tailed Tit | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | |
| Spotted Flycatcher | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Chiffchaff | 5 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 6 |
| Willow Warbler | 20 | 21 | 20 | 16 | 20 |
| Wood Warbler | 2 | ||||
| Garden Warbler | 12 | 11 | 11 | 13 | 12 |
| Blackcap | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 5 |
| Mistle Thrush | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Song Thrush | 12 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 12 |
| Blackbird | 30 | 27 | 30 | 30 | 36 |
| Redstart | 2 | 3 | 6 | 6 | 5 |
| Robin | 58 | 46 | 64 | 65 | 69 |
| Dunnock | 11 | 8 | 10 | 11 | 8 |
| Wren | 40 | 28 | 39 | 38 | 42 |
| Green Woodpecker | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Great Spotted woodpecker | 4 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Lesser Spotted Woodpecker | 2 | 2 | 2 | ||
| Cuckoo | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Tawny Owl | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Wood Pigeon | 25 | 21 | 20 | 27 | 25 |
| Stock Dove | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Pheasant | 1 | 1 | |||
| Total Species | 32 | 33 | 34 | 33 | 34 |
References (birds)
1. Notes on the Birds of Northamptonshire and neighbourhood – Thomas Littleton Powys Lilford 1895
2. Woodland Birds – Eric Simms. Collins New Naturalist Series 1971
Thanks to local bird photographer Barry Boswell for the use of his pictures – mostly taken locally.
Amended 8 February 2018