Upcoming Guided Walks & Winter Bird Report
Following the Winter Bird walk, Steve Hallam will be leading two guided walks in the coming weeks:
- Spring Flower Walk – starting from St Mary’s Old Church at 2 pm on 26th April, &
- Dawn Chorus, also from St Mary’s Old Church at the somewhat earlier time of 3:45 am. This walk affords the opportunity to see Nightingales and many other brilliant dawn choristers. For this walk you should bring warm clothing, stout footwear, a flask of hot drink and a torch.
The links above are to reports from previous walks. We recommend you wear strong boots or wellies since you may well need to walk through long wet grass!
The Friends of Hillhouse Wood is a group of local residents who work with The Woodland Trust to look after this beautiful remnant of ancient woodland. You will also be able to see them at the Village Fete on Saturday 14th June.
Winter Bird Walk 2025
One aspect of observing nature that makes it so compelling is that you never know what you will see and hear. Will it surpass expectations, or disappoint? As mentioned in previous years, this winter bird walk is the one that has the potential to provide ‘thin gruel’. Over the years there seems to be reduced numbers of over wintering birds in this area, especially earlier on in the season. This is why the date of the walk has moved back by a few weeks.
Unduly Pessimistic
This year, I had done some preparatory surveys in the days before the walk, and had seen relatively little. Nevertheless, 14 people came along, which was very pleasing. I thought that I should ‘manage expectations’ but, as it turned out, I was being unduly pessimistic.
Continue reading “Winter Bird, Spring Flowers & Dawn Chorus”