Bird communities in the buffer lands of Epping Forest

A farmland site in the green-belt buffer lands to the north of Epping Forest was surveyed for bird species across one calendar year. This is the first known effort in this area. The principal focus was upon birds listed on the Farmland Bird Index, but all species encountered were recorded, giving 41 species in total. Diversity and dominance data is presented for the whole year and across seasons. Eleven of the 19 indicator species were registered, and ten of those were present during breeding season. The majority of the missing eight species are red listed and in population decline, but so are some of those recorded. Generalist species were more readily registered. Woodpigeon is the dominant species, from two forms of analysis. The limitations of this survey and next steps are discussed.

Permission granted on 06/04/17, by the Essex Field Club (http://www.essexfieldclub.org.uk) to make the author accepted manuscript version available in the Middlesex University Research Repository. The final published article will be available in the Essex Naturalist, December 2017