Christine Milton reported that a Little Owl is back in the same nest hole in a tree bordering her paddock in School Road.  Swallows have also returned to her stables where they have nested for nearly 20 years.
Stephanie Mason of Gilda Terrace watched a Grass Snake on an area of flattened reeds in a ditch near Rayne Church.
Bev and John Stock, Shalford Road, had three separate sightings of Muntjac from the track that passes by Kings Farm.  They were on the adjoining field.  In their garden at Kings Farm Cottage they also have visits from a Green Woodpecker and have regularly seen Hares crossing Pods Lane.

Peter and Ann Lane, Brunwin Road, saw their first Large Red Damselfly in their garden on 29th April.  It is remarkable how this species is expanding its range.  About four years ago the first sightings in the Parish were reported on Pods Brook.  Now it is widespread in most garden ponds and is the first of the Odonata to appear in the spring.
Roger Martin, Duckend Green, was the first person to report the Cuckoo calling on Sunday 11th April, by the end of the day most people in Rayne must have heard it as it gave a virtuoso performance that it then repeated on the Monday.  We then had a spell of colder temperatures and high winds that put a stop to its serenading.  Roger also reported a Stoat along Pods Lane.  There have been several sightings this and last year and this is probably the reason that the Yellowhammers have not returned to nest for the last two seasons.  They are ground nesters and the stoat is an efficient hunter.  Roger though has seen two, I assume male Yellowhammers in the hedges towards Mounts Farm.  Roger who had never seen a Badger in the Parish saw one leaving a neighbours garden.  This is probably the individual that lives in a road culvert near-by.  It usually gets flooded out in the winter and moves elsewhere but unfortunately when the water level drops it returns.  Why my lack of enthusiasm for this animal?  Come and look at our grassed areas and parts of the garden that have been mulched.  They are pot-marked by the rooting of badgers looking for worms and insect larva.  Last year they even used part of the garden for their latrines.

Andy Voden has seen three male and one female Yellow Wagtails in a wet area of the meadow at Broadfields farm where he keeps their horses.  The males are an intense yellow with a greenish yellow head and nape.  These birds were reported as I write this on 13th May, are they breeding in the Parish?  They have been present for some time now.
Barbara Woods was out cycling with friends one afternoon when returning back along Shalford Road saw a herd of Fallow Deer in the field by Mounts Farm.  As they continued cycling the deer were trotting along the field just the other side of the hedge.  Barbara and her friends had the deer as company until they reached the entrance to Old Hall Farm.  Barbara thought there were over 30 animals in the herd.  Barbara was not exaggerating as Ernest Sexton who lives at Old Hall confirmed that the highest count in one herd on the farm was 32 deer.

Deer in Essex are becoming more habituated to the human population and because of this tameness they are moving into the built up areas where gardens provide a rich and varied diet.  Muntjac in particular have made this transition and being smaller find it very easy to lay-up for the day.  They know it's safer to spend a day under a bush in someone's garden than to chance it in a wood, hedge or in field crops.  At night one often hears the distinctive bark of Munjac from the built area of the village.  I also used to tell people that Roe Deer were entirely nocturnal but they also are now often seen during the day.

We had a male Bullfinch appear on our lawn eating the seed on the Dandelions.  When we first started living at Duckend Green in 1967 we had to cover all the fruit trees with a white cotton like material called Scaraweb.  This was necessary to prevent Bullfinches and Sparrows eating the flower buds.  Commercial growers at the time were using legal decoy traps to try and reduce Bullfinch numbers.  Then their numbers declined.  Though they are a very attractive bird I hope their revival in Rayne is limited as they are able to nearly strip a tree of its flower buds.

Roger Jiggins Tel. 01376 324 311, email mailto:r.jiggins@btconnect.com  (please put Wildlife as the subject)