Trip reports

Thursley Common, Surrey led by Nick Barlow

Monday, 2 June 2008

A Great-crested as well as the usual Little Grebe on the Moat Pond was a good start. We headed north from the pond to look for Dartford Warbler when a party of 10+ Crossbills flew over us and into the conifers by the car park. Then we heard and had brief glimpses of Dartford Warbler.
We made our way across the board-walks to the south side of the reserve where we saw good numbers of Woodlark and Redstart around the pines; we lunched watching a pair of Redstart taking food to their nest-hole, with a pair of Great-spotted Woodpeckers taking a possibly unhealthy interest in the proceedings.
We crossed the southern part of the reserve - there didn't appear to be a single surviving patch of the older heather or gorse. As we returned we had our best view of a Tree Pipit (displaying from wires) and several views of Hobbies flying very low whenever the sun broke through. We finished with our original Dartford Warblers, and the beautiful sound and sight of Curlew display - is this the nearest regular breeding site to us?
It started to rain as we returned to the cars; we'd been lucky with the weather and with the birds: 36 species, with Cuckoo and Wren also heard.