At last a sunny morning, so I took the chance to do my area 8 survey which starts in Woods Mill car park, up the road to Oreham Common, across the fields and up the hill to Sands Farm and back to finish on the reserve. I still had to plough through the welly deep mud in places but it was great to be out and not get soaked or wind blown! It was the second winter survey but the birds thought it was spring as so much song accompanied me around as both Song and Mistle Thrushes were in full song as were Wrens, Robins and Dunnocks. Great Tits with their ”teacher” call regaled me for much of the way and I heard the first Chiffchaff song when I got back to Woods Mill. A number of Redwing and a solitary Fieldfare reminded me that it was still winter. I hardly ever not see or hear a Great Spotted Woodpecker when doing this survey but not this time but I did record 3 Green Woodpeckers. It was great to hear a Little Grebe ‘whinnying’ from the depths of the reedbed from the lake of the reserve. Sadly no Marsh Tit appeared while I was in the hide but I did spend a wonderful 5 minutes watching the Water Rail parading just a few feet in front of me in perfect solitude when a couple of ‘birdographers’ joined me and I then had what sounded like 2 machine guns firing away either side of me but the Water Rail didn’t mind at all and I was pleased for them as they had never seen one before. Walking back through the woods I stood in one place and saw Nuthatch, Treecreeper and Goldcrest nearby all happily going about their business. A very nice morning with 38 species recorded.

Having finished the survey, the only place to be was on the balcony with a mug of coffee and a hot cross bun and as I sat down, 2 Buzzards wheeled around above the back of the garden and then a big female Sparrowhawk came from nowhere and took a dive at the bird table but flew off empty clawed. The garden is busy with the usual suspects at the moment and undoubtedly there’s a lot of pairing up going on with a number of territorial fracas as well and it is lovely to see a pair of Nuthatches coming regularly to the feeders. We have had a female Blackcap as a daily visitor for most of this year so far and today a male visited, while the most unusual bird has been a Kestrel that in the last 2 weeks, has been occasionally sitting in the oak tree at the back of the garden.

Mike Russell, 3rd March 2024