Barrow Moor - 15th March 08

Started from Barrow Moor this morning as it was getting light at 6.15am. It was overcast & a bit misty but not cold.
Firecrests were singing away (my first of the year), as were Song thrushes, Mistle Thrushes, Marsh Tits, Treecreepers & Blackbirds.
I walked through Knightwood Inclosure where there were some Great Spotted Woodpeckers drumming & calling, a Woodlark was singing over a clear-fell area & Siskins & Crossbills were flying over.
Into Anderwood & Burley Outer Rails Inclosures, a Roe doe was back under some Douglas Firs. Bullfinches, Green Woodpeckers, Buzzard, Jays, Chaffinches, Nuthatches, Great, Coal & Long-tailed Tits, Wrens, Redwings, Dunnocks were singing & calling & I also heard my first Chiff Chaff of the year.
I got to the bridge over the Blackensford Brook that runs through Burley Outer Rails & then went off-track & followed the stream up. The Bluebell & Pignut leaves are coming up now & I saw my first Wood Anemones of the year along the stream. As I was looking at the Anemones wondering weather or not to take a pic I heard the call of a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker in the Oak above my head & it carried on working from tree to tree as I walked on.
A bit further upstream, another bird I was hoping to see started calling…….with some high pitched whistles & a flash of blue a kingfisher shot off from round a bend in the stream. It’s nice to see them back on this stream as although they usually nest on this stretch, I didn’t see them here at all last year.
I carried on along the stream as it runs from North Oakley Inclosure & there was a pair of Grey Wagtails & a pair of Mandarin Ducks. I then broke off & headed out of North Oakley into Mark Ash Wood. As I headed back to the car the same birds were about plus a couple of Hawfinches perched at the top of the Beech trees singing & calling & some of the twigs on the ground here were covered in the jelly fungus Witches Butter.

Simon Currie