This morning started out bright and cheerful. There was a real hint of spring. Very mild compared to last week. The sky was a wintry colour with the sun breaking through.
In the back garden where the silver birch (Betula pendula), of the neighbour’s grows, I hear siskins (Spinis spinus) in the tree as I open the back door. There must have been 15 to 20 of them as they were making quite a din!
After gardening I decided to do some preparations for Forest Church later this month. I headed out to Wood Street, on the edge of Guildford and parked up.
I took a different walk route than the previous one, which went underneath a fallen oak tree and headed into the denser part of the wood. A path was evident that I was unaware of before. Doing this new route enabled me as I walked to come up with some questions for Forest Church related to the trees around me.
Further in there was numerous bird activity. I heard a song I was not familiar with which caught my attention, a rather delicate plaintive song initially. I lost the song amongst other bird chatter for a moment and then caught the sound again and began to watch the bird that was making the song. On first hearing the song at a distance I had mistaken it for the song of a warbler and I thought I’d stumbled upon a rarity!
The bird making a sound is one of those confusing species which I don’t come across very often. It was either a willow tit (Poecile montanus) or marsh tit (Poecile palustris). Willow tits are the rarer of the two so I quite naturally plumped for marsh tit although I wasn’t overly convinced that this was the case.
I wasn’t too bothered by this as I was more interested in the calls it was making. I like to hear new sounds and it reminded me of something from another country as it came to my attention.
On my walk I took various pictures to aid my thought process as I planned for Forest Church. I include those here. I guess one had to be present to really appreciate what these pictures were of. The presence of the light in the gaps in the trees the turns of branch and angles of shade all rather appealed to me.
Heading on down towards the big pond, I passed a pond which I didn’t realise was there. Before on my recce, I had taken a different route and had missed the opportunity of seeing this pond.
I am rather fond of ponds. In my youth I would spend time looking into ponds including cattle troughs! I looked after a particular pond in Ash, near Aldershot, where I would take pictures over the year of the changes taking place throughout the seasons.
This pond was rather a special one for me having the responsibility of monitoring and managing it. I used the pond as part of my coursework which I was doing for my conservation management course. I would take samples of the water it’s depth, it’s breath and samples of the things that were living in it to be able to identify them and then report on my finds.
There is a lot going on in a pond which isn’t always immediately obvious. A ponds is a small habitat which all can examine and study. Children appreciate looking at ponds and I remember the wonder that they experience when I was working at a local school. If I had my way I think I would encourage everyone to examine a pond sometime in their life, it is a very rewarding experience.
After thinking about how to use the pond for Forest Church I headed up the hill towards the area which opens out with a rather different view of Guildford than one might be used to. The picture that I took doesn’t really do it justice but gives you a hint of the horizon and the wonder of what’s Surrey entails.
On the return journey back to where I had parked, I had a rather special encounter with a Great tit (Parus major). On approaching a bend in the path. I was rather struck by sounds which I describe as aggressive and confrontational!
There is something appealing about birdsong which you need to hear. One needs to be present to fully appreciate. This Great tit seemed to be bothered by my presence and was approaching me very boldly until it was over my head on a branch. It did make me wonder whether it had begun to nest but I put this thought out of my head as it was very early for this to be taking place.
Great tit’s are usually quite bold for such small birds but there were no other birds present that I could see for it to be something such as courtship. Maybe I was encroaching on its territory!
To finish I ended up the circular walk following a muddy path to the one that I’d started with. Approaching where I had parked I heard the sound of the birds which I started this article with, but a different flock. This time I couldn’t even see them I could only hear them. I tried to find them but realised I needed to go. As I turned to walk back towards the vehicle a fieldfare (Turdus pilaris) was right in my line of vision above the path on a branch. What a lovely end to a inspiring walk!