Walk Report - 7th December - Bolderwood

On a misty morning Richard Smith, Diane and I set off from Bolderwood car park to look for winter thrushes.

We walked past the Deer Sanctuary (no deer or birds to be seen) and continued on the path downhill. It didn’t seem very promising as all we saw at first were robins, dunnocks and blackbirds but as we got further on there was movement above and around us. Long-tailed, great and blue tits, treecreeper, nuthatches and goldcrests were constantly on the move in the trees giving us good, if fleeting, views.

           Long-tailed Tit - RS

                                                    Great Tit - CR

The shortcut that we usually take on this part of the walk was so squelchy that we stayed on the hard path until it met the cycle path at a T-junction, where we turned right to head up to the holly plantation.  The birds were more obliging here with nuthatches feeding on the path and a goldcrest moving about in the bracken. 

                 Nuthatch - RS

                                                    Goldcrest - RS

As we proceeded uphill through the holly we became aware of the (mainly) redwings feeding on berries and chattering to each other. A green woodpecker called, very close by, though we couldn’t see it. We did see a song thrush on the ground and had a close view of a raven cronking as it flew over our heads. The fieldfares proved elusive – we only saw them in flight, but one redwing obligingly sat in a nearby tree delicately plucking the berries. 

Song Thrush - RS

There were a few chaffinches about but no bramblings that we could see, though the birds only had to be a few yards away to disappear in the mist. 

We made our way back to the car park for a warm drink. A shortish walk but a productive one.

CR

Map:

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