White Wood

A lie-in is a rare and wonderful thing in these days of day shifts and the necessity to go birding. I enjoyed one today [Well, sort of. I was still up and awake far too early, really..]. So, it was this afternoon that I went for a wander with the Folks around White Wood and Venford reservoir. White Wood is wrapped around Bench Tor, a steep [and by that I mean Devon steep, so you can fall down it] mass of mossy rocks and boulders covered in twisted Oaks and bordered by Birch groves. The Dart churns past its feet - far below the track which is the one way through it. Leaving that track - which runs from a private field to the base of the reservoir's waterworks enclosure - is asking for a nasty accident, just don't do it. Even if you don't dislocate or break something, the climb back up will kill you. More importantly, you can see all the birds around from the track. :)

Today there weren't any Pied Flycatchers or Redstarts or Wood Warblers or LSWs or anything sexy like that. There were two singing Willow Warblers, a pair of Green Woodpeckers, and a small group of House Martins. Venford was empty of birds, but around it there were groups of noisy Redpoll and Siskin, and a showy Treeecreeeper. Not a long walk, but a nice one.

In other news... The Gull Alarm has been going off fairly regularly, but the most notable trigger was an adult Geeb, which was vigourously seen off by a dozen Herrings yesterday. Still no hirundines here. Let alone insanely early Swifts. Oh, but for an Osprey actually over my patch when I'm there to see it.......