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Welcome to my blog. If you live in Surrey and birding is your obsession (to get out of bed at some ridiculously early time of the morning, no matter what the weather, to go and look at birds isn't normal behaviour, believe me) and you're still a bit of a novice (like me) then, hopefully, this blog is for you.



Tuesday 11 May 2010

LITTLE BOOKHAM'S PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA


I took a visit to Bookham and Little Bookham Commons this morning. It was a beautiful start to the day - the sun was up, although it was a bit too cold for the time of year.

The Bookham Commons made for a really satisfying walk. Warblers were plentiful, with a Garden Warbler being my first sight, followed by Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler, and numerous Blackcap and Whitethroat. A Kestrel flew by, the only bird of prey I saw all morning, while I also saw a Reed Bunting and Yellowhammer.

The woods were a symphony of birdsong, with the song of one bird standing out above all others - a Nightingale. I heard two during the morning, and while I failed to see the first one, I was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the second, but it took an age - more than an hour - to spot it. The song was fantastically pure and dramatic, and the bird was clearly only feet away in the undergrowth, and although I scrambled through the low scrub and dense thicket to get a decent vantage point, this bird was mightily difficult to see.

But it was worth it to get my 132nd different bird of the year, and it being a Nightingale - the Pavarotti of the bird world - a really satisfying one at that.

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