Pitts Wood, New Forest 12th January

The weather was sunny! Highlights were Fieldfare, 2 Dartford Warblers, Bullfinches and Treecreepers.

8 of us met in the car park and set off down the heathland with just a couple of Carrion Crows, a Blue Tit and a singing Robin for company. At the bottom of the first valley a couple of Fieldfare showed quite well on the ground before flying off. We also heard a Reed Bunting calling here. Up on the hill top was an area of scrub with just a few Chaffinches in. A bit further along we heard a Dartford Warbler. It wouldn’t show itself, so I tried pishing. For once it worked really well. A female Reed Bunting was the first to fly in followed by a couple of Meadow Pipits. These all sat on gorse calling and then a pair of Dartford Warblers showed themselves.
We walked down the slope to Pitts Wood. At this end of the wood is a large open grassy area and this had loads of thrushes on it. Several Blackbirds and Song Thrushes were feeding and a Mistle Thrush soon arrived into nearby trees. At the back of the grassy area an area of scrubby woodland had the sun shining on it and in the small trees 3 male Bullfinches were feeding. They looked incredibly bright in the sunshine. We walked through the woods seeing a Great-spotted Woodpecker in a tree top and at least 3 Treecreeper in a flock of tits. Walking back across the heathland we saw a Stonechat and a couple more Dartford Warblers. Since the past few days had been rainy and gloomy, the best thing about the walk was the sunshine.
Simon Curson