April come she will

Birding at Broadwater Warren this morning. We were on the lookout for woodlarks and tree pipits at one of the RSPBs newer reserves. Indeed it is clearly a work in progress as large areas have been cleared to allow the heather seeds below the soil to germinate and provide a good habitat for the wood lark. At present though only the clearing is in evidence not the re-growth.

A pleasant walk round on a mild day but the wind was still quite blustery out of the shelter of the trees and the ground very boggy despite the overall drought conditions in the area.









Birds were not much in evidence unless you are a big fan of the chaffinch but there were other interesting things to note: various notices pointing out the military history of the area, some large wood ant nests, pond skaters and the turret of a WWII Churchill tank.

After lunch, during which we briefly saw a buzzard, and were overflown by a couple of swallows, we moved on to Old Lodge in the Ashdown Forest and found our tree pipit obligingly clinging to the top of a tree in a strong breeze and singing his little heart out. In the background we could hear the increasingly rare sound of a cuckoo.






A big fox cruised past, certainly a menace for the ground-nesting birds and we also saw several deer, more wood ants, ponies and a redstart or two. Again the ground was very boggy in places which should perhaps be regarded as a good sign. The day grew warmer and less breezy and all in all had been very pleasant indeed.