© Imperial College London.
Like so much of the Dartmoor National Park, St Olaves is blessed by abundant wildlife. Roe and fallow deer are frequently to be seen grazing on the hillside that runs down to the River Teign and in the adjacent fields, and there is a large badger set on the main path down to the river. There are also signs of otter activity along the river bank, although we have still only once managed to catch sight of these elusive creatures.
But what you notice everyday is the mass of birds in every corner of the garden. Bullfinches, goldcrests and wrens flitting within a foot or two of the windows, tawny owls passing directly overhead at dusk, and the calls of ravens and buzzards soaring above you throughout the year. Birds that we previously saw occasionally on holidays to the uplands of Wales or the Pennines we now see most days.
Raven. Photo: Minette Layne/Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)
The magisterial stars of the show are undoubtedly the resident pair of ravens, who seem to favour the towering Sitka Spruce at the junction of our leat system. We also have a grey wagtail and a heron visiting the small pond outside our kitchen window, tawny owls roosting in the nearby Giant Redwood, and treecreepers, nuthatches and woodpeckers climbing the trees that surround the house.
2020 was our third spring at St Olaves and like many people, being confined to home by the first Covid lockdown we found we had more opportunity to tune in to the constant backdrop of bird song. Although we had previously caught sight of many summer migrants, this was the first year that we heard Blackcap and Garden Warbler around the house on a daily basis. In the last week of April we twice heard a Cuckoo calling on the hillside, but we never caught sight of him. We had already seen more than fifty different bird species at St Olaves by the end of our first winter, thanks mainly to the prolonged and heavy snowfalls associated with the ‘beast from the East’, which drove many species in from more remote moorland sites. Since then the number has crept up more slowly, but we accelerated our hit rate in 2020, thanks mainly to the lock-down. As hoped, we saw quite a few summer visitors for the first time in 2020, taking our tally of species to seventy by mid-August, but there are still quite a few reclusive woodland visitors we know must be here despite our not yet seeing (or hearing) them - notably willow and wood warblers and the spotted fly-catcher. Seeing so many birds for the first time has been one small comfort in the grim circumsatnces of the current health emergency.
Below is our list of birds seen since August 2017, with the year of first record. Birds marked (v) are summer visitors, those marked (w) are only seen in winter. An * indicates our most commonly seen birds. If the year is in italics we have only seen the species once at St Olaves.
Blackbird* [2017]
Blackcap (v*) [2019]
Blue Tit* [2017]
Bullfinch [2017]
Buzzard* [2017]
Canada Goose [2020]
Carrion Crow* [2017]
Chaffinch* [2017]
Chiffchaff (v*) [2018]
Coal Tit* [2017]
Collared Dove* [2018]
Cuckoo (v) [only heard, 2020]
Dipper [2017]
Dunnock* [2017]
Fieldfare (w) [2018]
Garden Warbler (v) [2020]
Goldcrest* [2017]
Goldfinch* [2017]
Goshawk [2018]
Goosander [2021]
Great Spotted Woodpecker* [2017]
Great Tit* [2017]
Greenfinch [2018]
Green Woodpecker [2019]
Grey Wagtail [2017]
Hen Harrier [2020]
Heron* [2017]
Herring Gull* [2017]
Hobby (v) [2020]
House Martin (v*) [2017]
House Sparrow* [2017]
Jackdaw [2017]
Jay* [2017]
Kingfisher [2017]
Lapwing (w) [2018]
Lesser Redpoll [2019]
Lesser Black-backed Gull [2020]
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker [2018]
Linnet [2018]
Long-tailed Tit* [2017]
Magpie* [2017]
Mallard [2017]
Marsh Tit* [2018]
Merlin [2018]
Mistle Thrush [2018]
Nightjar (v) [only heard, 2020]
Nutchatch* [2017]
Peregrine Falcon [2018]
Pheasant* [2018]
Pied Flycatcher (v) [2020]
Pied Wagtail [2018]
Raven* [2017]
Red Kite [2020]
Redstart (v) [2019]
Redwing (w) [2018]
Robin* [2017]
Rock/Feral Pigeon [2020]
Rook* [2017]
Siskin* [2018]
Song Thrush* [2017]
Sparrowhawk [2018]
Starling [2018]
Stock Dove [2020]
Swallow (v*) [2017]
Swift (v) [2017]
Tawny Owl* [2017]
Treecreeper* [2017]
Whitethroat (v) [2019]
Woodcock (w) [2018]
Wood Pigeon* [2017]
Wren* [2017]
Mammals seen at St Olaves - in rough order of ubiquity
Grey squirrel
Common Pippistrelle bat
Roe deer
fox
badger
fallow deer
wood mouse
brown rat
noctule bat
rabbit
field mouse
common shrew
stoat
otter