Yesterday evening I went to Whitmoor to do my first reconnaisance for Forest Church number 3. I have been to Whitmoor before so I know my way around. Whitmoor Common is about 185ha in size and is made up of 4 compartments. The main car park is based in compartment 4. I had intentions to get to Brook Pond and to Compartment 3 which is on the other side of the railway line. Suffice to say, I never made it!
My plan for Forest Church – it doesn’t need to be a secret, is to include witnessing nightjar, bats, woodcock and other crepuscular creatures as well as imbibe the ambience. I must say I wasn’t in the right frame of mind and it took me a while to really begin connecting. Even when I did connect it wasn’t as deep as I would have liked. This seems to be the how things are with me at the moment.
During this first part of the walk I approached a large section of gorse which “brzzzhd-brzzzhd”. Standing still I peered into the hedge and watched. Thinking it was a Dartford Warbler my heart rate increased. I caught sight of an intense white throat and dark grey head. The sound I had heard didn’t match the sight. I was puzzled, the sound stopped, I moved on. (After a look at home in a book it turns out my rusty birdwatching habits had uncovered a Whitethroat). Other birds were singing including a distant Cuckoo, Song Thrush and a wistful blackbird.
Back to what was happening in my soul. When I ‘pulled myself together‘ things began to happen. This was probably to do with my change of mind more than the environment I was trudging through. I considered doing the fox walk and felt a little silly when I attempted it because it didn’t seem quite right. Making a mental note to look into how it was best to do it – maybe watch a video on the matter I continued in my usual walking style.
What also triggered the change of heart was deciding to take a route which involved going off the beaten track. I think this is a good philosophy generally as it is said if you go somewhere regularly but take a different route it actually enables increased creativity – something to do with using different neural networks?! Also wandering is a primeval activity, something to do with our instincts as hunter gatherers – again I’m not an expert on these matters, practical action usually proves this kind of thing and in my case it did!
I walked slower and trod more carefully beginning to hear the sounds around me more intently. I cheered up, so much so I made an error of judgement and spoke my thoughts aloud just as a fox came round the corner of the path – startled it turned tail and fled! I was annoyed with myself and tried to capture the moment again, following the narrow path to peering over tussocks as the light dimmed but to no avail.
The evening progressed but the light didn’t get less quickly it seemed to take a long time. The sky was overcast and in places had an pinky-orange glow about it. The first bat came out which I watched circling a tree and then another came out – or was it the same one? The latter one seemed to be much larger. (I look forward to next week as I think I may be getting a bat detector for my birthday I can try it out here and Fox Corner plus other places).
The highlight of the evening for me was strange call of a woodcock and then as it called I saw it flying almost over my head at about 20 feet up. Flying in a straight line it disappeared towards the railyway line. I stood in the same spot for another 10 minutes or so and the same or another came over me lower and right over my head clearly showing it’s long bill and dumpy shape.
I satisfied myself with waiting a bit longer, hearing (the) woodcock in the distance twice and then headed for the car.