Christine's walking & birds blog

Littleworth Common

A walk in the Beeches late afternoon brought loads of chaffinches and redwings. It was nice and still after all the horrendous winds we've had lately, but it was already getting too dark to see.

I stopped off at Littleworth Common with the moon rising over the bare trees. There were at least twenty redwings and a great spotted woodpecker. Five small blobs at the top of a birch turned out to be redpolls; and as I was leaving, two geese went flying north - I was too slow to see if they were the"odd pair" of barnacle and Egyptian, but I had been alerted to their passing by a nasal sort of call which I'll have to research.

(On another visit to the Beeches recently, I heard the call that I thought might be a redwing; I tracked it down - and it was a great tit! It wasn't the first time I've been hoodwinked by a great tit and no doubt it won't be the last - they seem to have an inexhaustible supply of different calls. However, it's still a very nice sound.)

Thursday evening

We went to Dorney Wetlands, where Greger did a route march to the weir and I hung around near the bridges hoping to hear the Cetti's. I didn't, but a little egret fishing on West Marsh was a nice sight. Negotiating the boardwalk (which is pretty slippery when wet) I was startled by a splash, and just caught a glimpse of a water rail darting round the edge of the reedbed. As I left, there was a brief squealing duet so two birds at least are present.