Spectacular wildlife sights - from the River Cam to Tesco’s car park in Milton
- By Bob Jarman
Spectacular wildlife sights can be seen anywhere from the River Cam to the ponds on Logan’s Meadow, outside the chemists on Mitcham’s Corner, in Gilbert Road or Tesco’s car park in Milton!
Frogs are supposed to be cold-blooded, but they spawn when the temperature is about 4C at the beginning of March in Logan’s Meadow, Chesterton.
There must have been more than 100 clambering over each other in a mass love-in to fertilise huge blobs of spawn. They were reckless in their determination to breed and ignored me trying to get the best shot of their huge grinning faces.
At the same time Chris Preston, of the Cambridge Natural History Society, found a drake goosander just past Jesus Lock by the punt stations, which later moved to the Mill Pond. Goosanders are rare saw-bill ducks. They are called saw-bills because of their long serrated bills which are used for catching fish. In winter, they are usually birds of large open freshwater lakes. They breed on upland rivers but have recently expanded south; a pair bred on the river near Little Shelford for the first time in Cambridgeshire in 2018.
They nest in holes in trees and in May the males, and only the male birds, migrate to the Tanafjord estuary in north Norway to moult together with every other male goosander in western Europe!
Just before Christmas I was waiting outside the chemists on Mitcham’s Corner. Something caught my eye… it was a red kite soaring over the Old Spring pub at just above roof-top height. It was watching me, watching the queue doubtless looking for a dead road-side bird or discarded takeaway - I could see its glowering yellow eyes! It then glided upwards over Mitcham’s Corner and headed off up Victoria Road!
Birds of prey steal the limelight for birdwatchers. Another remarkable red kite incident happened at the junction of Histon Road and Gilbert Road.
I was at the front of the queue waiting for the lights to change when above the road at roof-top height a peregrine falcon with a dead pigeon was being harassed by a red kite. The lights changed to green, I stalled the car and the queue behind me started to hoot. I had to move. The kite was clearly trying to dispossess the peregrine of its kill.
Something similar happened in Tesco’s car park at Milton. I had just returned my trolley to the rack and was enjoying watching the pied wagtails when a brown shape swept past my shoulder. It was female sparrowhawk - its speed was remarkable! It closed its wings between two cars parked side-by-side and grabbed a pied wagtail. It then swept up to land in a tree overlooking the car park with its prey. The whole hunt lasted the mere blink of an eye.
The reintroduction of red kites into the UK has been one of the most successful bird reintroductions, probably in the world.
In the 1960s and 1970s red kites were a dwindling, in-breeding population of about 18 pairs in mid-Wales. Genetic analysis showed that all the birds tested shared mitochondrial DNA with the same female bird of German origin.
Fledgling birds were imported from Spain to increase genetic diversity and released into the Chilterns. The Spanish population is now in decline and it’s ironic that it is now being supplemented with birds from Britain.
Red kites are now regular over the city. A pair bred in Girton in 2016 raising one chick and birds have also been seen low over the Botanic Garden, Mill Road cemetery, Trumpington Meadows and Chesterton Bowls Club.
In the 1970s, I went to university in Aberystwyth to be near the red kites in mid-Wales. I met my wife there and I now remind my children and grandchildren that if it hadn’t been for the red kites they might not be here now!
