After finishing my shift on the Surrey Bird Club Woking Peregrine Project stand on Saturday afternoon I couldn't resist popping over to the Ash Ranges to catch up with the singing male Wood Warbler found by John Clark that morning.
Aside from a silent bird I stumbled across on a wooded coastal hillside in Sardinia last month my last singing male Wood Warbler was at Tice's Meadow in April 2013. I generally don't go out of my way much for birds unless they're lifers but knowing it could be at least another four years before I caught up with another local one, the appeal of this bird pretty much on my way home was just too tempting.
Thanks to John's very specific grid reference I had no problem connecting with the bird on arrival, especially as I could hear it singing from c.100m away! I was then treated to close views for the best part of an hour, with nobody else around for the whole time I was there, the bird calling and singing almost constantly throughout. Let's hope his effort is worth it and he sticks around and finds a female!
As far as I'm aware they've not been there for at least the past couple of years but I may be wrong. Certainly massively declined right across the southeast now.
Are they truly gone from Devil's Punchbowl nowadays? That used to be the best Surrey spot that I knew of way back in the day. Sad loss if so.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I'm aware they've not been there for at least the past couple of years but I may be wrong. Certainly massively declined right across the southeast now.
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