Saturday 16th May - Ashdown Forest and Weirwood Reservoir
With travel restrictions lifted I thought it would be a good time to make the annual trip to Ashdown Forest in the hope of seeing the three species which I do not usually see at any other location i.e. common redstart, tree pipit and woodlark.
I arrived at just before 8 o'clock and as I drove into the Old Lodge car park I was surprised to see Jenny and Tim Holter who had obviously decided to visit the forest on the same day and were just preparing to set off on their walk around the reserve.
Greetings were exchanged and as they left the car park I gathered my photographic equipment and binoculars to begin my walk.
Initially it was quite difficult to identify a number of birds which were at the tops of trees since the poor light conditions made it almost impossible to distinguish any colours. Any photos taken at this point only resulted in silhouettes.
After drawing a blank at the part of the reserve where in the past I have often seen tree pipits or woodlarks, I finally had some luck a little further on when a tree pipit made its presence known at the top of a tree but although I did take some photos there was not a clear view of the bird as there were some twigs crossing the line of sight. However in the same area several common redstarts were discovered including one which posed nicely on a wire fence allowing a good photo opportunity.
It was not long before the song of a woodlark was heard and after following the sound, a distant view of two woodlarks was obtained. Around the same time a couple of cuckoos were spotted but were too far away to capture any decent image.
A little later a lesser redpoll was seen which was another year tick for me but it was not possible to photograph before it flew off.
Towards the end of the circuit of the reserve two more woodlarks were spotted on a telephone wire and flew to the ground about ten metres in front of me but before I could get my camera ready they flew away. Luckily one of them immediately landed on another wire about twenty five metres away which allowed me to take the photo below.
After having some lunch I made a trip over to Weirwood Reservoir with the idea of perhaps seeing either house martin or sand martin which I have not seen yet this year but although I saw some swallows and swifts there were no martins. Instead I was pleased to find three hobbies which spent the whole time hawking above the water. I have never previously seen more than one hobby at any one time. Also present were around a dozen common terns and a well hidden mandarin duck which were also year ticks for me.
There was one last photo opportunity next to the car park at Weirwood Reservoir where a nesting box had been set up which was occupied by some nuthatches. The first photo below shows one parent waiting with food outside the nesting box until the other parent has finished feeding the babies and the bottom photo shows a parent removing some poo from the nest.
.
I arrived at just before 8 o'clock and as I drove into the Old Lodge car park I was surprised to see Jenny and Tim Holter who had obviously decided to visit the forest on the same day and were just preparing to set off on their walk around the reserve.
Greetings were exchanged and as they left the car park I gathered my photographic equipment and binoculars to begin my walk.
Initially it was quite difficult to identify a number of birds which were at the tops of trees since the poor light conditions made it almost impossible to distinguish any colours. Any photos taken at this point only resulted in silhouettes.
After drawing a blank at the part of the reserve where in the past I have often seen tree pipits or woodlarks, I finally had some luck a little further on when a tree pipit made its presence known at the top of a tree but although I did take some photos there was not a clear view of the bird as there were some twigs crossing the line of sight. However in the same area several common redstarts were discovered including one which posed nicely on a wire fence allowing a good photo opportunity.
A little later a lesser redpoll was seen which was another year tick for me but it was not possible to photograph before it flew off.
Towards the end of the circuit of the reserve two more woodlarks were spotted on a telephone wire and flew to the ground about ten metres in front of me but before I could get my camera ready they flew away. Luckily one of them immediately landed on another wire about twenty five metres away which allowed me to take the photo below.
There was one last photo opportunity next to the car park at Weirwood Reservoir where a nesting box had been set up which was occupied by some nuthatches. The first photo below shows one parent waiting with food outside the nesting box until the other parent has finished feeding the babies and the bottom photo shows a parent removing some poo from the nest.
.
Comments