Wildlife walk

The ever popular annual wildlife walk took place this morning under cool and dull conditions. This year our leader was Steve Piotrowski - an independent environmental consultant who runs many bird identification courses for the British Trust for Ornithology and the Field Studies Council.  Steve did an excellent job of imparting his knowledge of birds, particularly given the wide range of abilities of those attending.  I think we all came away having learned something.  We saw or heard a total of 38 bird species which is a record for these walks.  This total is all the more impressive when we factor in the late arrival of birds such as whitethroat and willow warbler which we would normally expect to see on the course in late April.  The highlights of the walk were woodlark nesting on the course, several whimbrel on the set aside and a ring ouzel passing through (probably on its way to Scandinavia).  At least five nightingales were heard, two red deer were seen in the woodland and we had very good views of a fox making a hopeless attempt to catch up with a flying pheasant!