For the first time this year I was able to meet up with Jenny, Tim and Sue and our chosen location was the Old Lodge reserve at Ashdown Forest. We normally go to Ashdown Forest a little later in the year when tree pipits and redstarts have arrived but it is always a nice place to visit. As I have not been out much this year, my year list had only reached 65 species and 59 of those were seen at my local country park so I was hopeful of increasing my total.
The first bird of note we saw was a woodlark which was singing from the top of a conifer before flying down onto the path about 30 metres ahead of us.
We walked a little further and a coal tit was seen high up in a tree and then we soon spotted a crossbill at the top of a conifer but it quickly disappeared into the foliage. After a while it became visible again and I managed to take a quick photo as it took off and dived into cover.
In the same vicinity we saw a small bird on the top of another conifer but although I took a photo I was not sure exactly what it was at the time because the bright sky behind the bird meant that I could only see a silhouette. When I got back home I was able to turn up the brightness to find some colour and streaking on the flank of the bird which showed that it was a siskin. The photo quality is rather poor but I have included it anyway.
Immediately after the siskin, another small bird flew out and landed in a tree behind me and was identified as a lesser redpoll.
Further on we came across a goldcrest in a small tree which proved almost impossible to photograph as it was constantly moving and the camera kept focusing on the small twigs of the tree instead of the bird.
As we neared the end of out circuit of the reserve we heard a loud call which we did not recognise but when tracking down where the sound was coming from, we saw that it was a siskin. This time the bright yellow and green colour was clearly visible in the bright sunshine but it was gone before it could be photographed.
We decided to take our packed lunches to a nearby beautiful spot where goshawks have been seen but we were not lucky enough to see one but a few buzzards were soaring high in the sky. After lunch Jenny, Tim and I moved on to Weir Wood reservoir and this time I left my camera in the car as it was becoming heavy to carry. Here we saw grey wagtail, nuthatch, treecreeper, great spotted woodpecker, 2 distant mandarin ducks, many cormorants and great crested grebes before we eventually parted to make our way home.
It was a beautiful sunny day, the hottest of the year so far, and it was so good to have been able to meet up again after such a long time in lockdown. My year list had increased by 10 species to 75.
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