Trip reports

Group visit to Pressmennan Wood

Sunday, 29 May 2011

It was a windy, cloudy day for our visit to Pressmennan wood, managed by the Woodland Trust and a new venue for the Group. We knew that redstart frequented the area and I had seen a male on a "recce" visit the previous week. On the way we spotted a grey partridge by the roadside and a pair of jackdaws.

There was a chorus of song as we entered the wood from chiffchaff, bullfinch, willow warbler, blackcap and song thrush and we saw a pied wagtail and blackbird on the pathway. We soon added sightings of chaffinch, willow warbler, blackcap, swallows, great tit, a robin and pheasants, one melanistic, with a buzzard overhead. Walking along the lakeside path we saw mute swans with two live and three dead cygnets (how did this occur?), a moorhen, mallard, coot and little grebe but no redstart where I had seen them before. We heard the characteristic "chip" and then Mark spotted a male great spotted woodpecker in a dead tree. We then saw a wren, blue and coal tits and a great tit feeding her newly fledged young brood.

At the end of the wood is a long bank of gorse and broom where we had excellent sightings of a spotted flycatcher, willow warbler, a number of linnets and a yellowhammer.

We returned to the cars for lunch and then ventured to Bellhaven where the wind was extremely gusty. Sea viewing was impossible, but we saw two shelduck, herring gulls and gannets as we walked along the shore to the pool where we added sand martins, a grey heron, a rook, house sparrow and dunnock to the tally.

It was nice to welcome new members to our group for this visit.

Margaret Harrison