I headed out to an area I haven’t visited for about a year. I parked by the green in Wood Street on the edge of Guildford in Surrey and went down one of the lanes which leads to the pedestrian railway crossing.
About 12 years ago to the day – which at the time of writing is the 27th April 2024; I went down the same lane and came across a lesser whitethroat (Curruca curruca* – I love that name!) which I’ve never had there since. Further along the path on the same day I had a nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos). This species I had in a similar area, two or three years running. It was the song that initially drew my attention to it whilst riding my bike. That being said I have not seen or heard a nightingale in this area since then.
Incidentally last Saturday morning I went for an early walk to Chitty’s Common to see if I could hear or see the kingfishers (Alcedo atthis) – no joy this time. They have been calling and fishing in the last few months by the pond there. I have had some good views of them. Maybe it was too early in the morning even for them – the sun hadn’t quite come up. Also the temperature has been in single figures (Celsius) of late and rather windy. I decided to extend my walk onto the field off Keen’s lane (top road on the aerial photo) which is on a hillside looking towards the Ash Ranges. It is a really pleasant view whatever time of year.
This is the field shown in the aerial photo. It is rather boggy in places due to what I think maybe a spring line on the side of the hill just below the woody section to the northwest (north being at the top of the picture). I passed the spring and was cornering the field and began to hear a familiar sound. I hadn’t heard it since my birthday two years ago when I had a trip with a good friend of mine to the Knepp Estate. The bird was another Lesser whitethroat and I made a recording here:
Continuing with the walk I started writing about. I headed towards where I had those many years ago seen the lesser whitethroat and I began to hear a very distressed bird or possibly more than one. It was a blackbird (Turdus merula) that was chinking away but at a higher pitch than I have heard before. Immediately I thought there’s something in that thicket they don’t like. I reckoned it was an owl. As I got nearer the sound I saw some rapid movements so I began to scan the trees. Just as I thought, on a large trunk of what looked like a fallen tree, about a foot in diameter, at an angle approximately of twenty degrees was a large mottled brown blob. It was roughly 15 metres away from me. Unobligingly it had its face away from me. I did see a hint of movement but it remained still. I moved back along the track to see if I could see it from a different angle but the trees were too thick. I went back to my original position and it had turned its head round so I could see its face. It looked like it was dozing. The racket from the blackbird had died down and so it sat patiently unperturbed by my presence. It was a beautiful tawny owl (Strix aluco).
I have usually only heard them in the past couple of years. There’s one I heard near Chitty’s Common I mentioned earlier (a little northwest of the aerial photo). They are not often seen during the day unless they are mobbed just like this one. Apart from this one I did see one with Forest Church and we heard one in March at Fox Corner reserve in the afternoon.
It was very quiet walking along the Christmas Pie trail. The spring foliage was that lush green colour. The bird song was subdued being in the afternoon and probably due to there being less birds around for other reasons.
As I approached the field to the north of Wood Street cricket green, on the opposite side of the railway line I heard skylarks (Alauda arvensis). They were ascending and descending over the rapeseed (Brassica napus) fields. It was lovely to hear so many. I think I heard and saw seven of them. A whitethroat (Curruca communis) sang from the corner of the woodland at the bottom of the field by Flexford lane. This specimen was my first for the year. I discovered in the morning that they are on the amber list. The lesser whitethroat mentioned earlier I thought was not as common as the common whitethroat.
Continuing on my journey I started hearing the high pitched call of a ‘crest, that’s short for goldcrest (Regulus regulus) or firecrest (Regulus ignicapillus). I wasn’t convinced it was goldcrest so I made more of a diligent search of it and managed to get really close to it so it pretty much filled my binocular lenses. It was a rather bedraggled firecrest with a thin orange band across its head. I’m not sure whether females sing but because of it’s colouration it did make me consider that it was female. It was also not in the usual habitat associated with this species.
Not far from the firecrest a person was coming towards me. This was the first person I’d seen walking – there were two others on bikes before this point. She was standing on the path calling and I wondered what she was calling. At the same time a sound of whirring and a strange quacking flight call burst out from nowhere! I saw a small dog which had been chasing what turned out to be two Mandarin ducks (Aix galericulata). The ducks disappeared through the trees over the rapeseed field.
The rest of the walk was pretty uneventful apart from seeing four of five swooping swallows (Hirundo rustica). All in all it was a pleasant circular walk, a little over 5km. It was so lovely to take in the spring fresh air and get my dose of nature! (30 species of bird logged on BirdTrack)