Monday 1st May 2023: Yarner Wood, Dartmoor

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An earlier than usual trip to Dartmoor this year, started with a generally pleasant day weather wise , with increasing amounts of sunshine as the day wore on. Following a slap up breakfast at The House of Marbles, we had an enjoyable time at Yarner Wood. As we got out of the cars, we almost immediately heard the song of a Pied Flycatcher and were quickly able to locate this, then throughout the wood we found a number of further birds, both male and female. After some considerable time I persuaded the photography team it was time to move on and maybe try to see a few other species!


Pied Flycatcher


We headed up the track towards the heathland area where our attention was caught by the delightful bubbling song of a Garden Warbler. Often elusive, singing from the depths of a bush, we eventually managed excellent views of this relatively dull looking bird with a strong eye ring.

Garden Warbler

Continuing on the path, we failed to locate any Redstarts in their usual area, but at Trendlebeare we had excellent views of a singing Willow Warbler. 
Willow Warbler

Unfortunately we were a little too early for Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers which were believed to be nesting nearby. Last year we had good views of parents feeding young in the nest, but the eggs appeared not to have hatched yet and we did not manage to see a bird this time round.

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