Finches and tits

Denge Wood - 0900-1215hrs - mild and overcast - For a change of scene CP joined us today for a jaunt over to this under-watched and relatively remote block of woodland on the North Downs, our second homage to the trees this year after the disappointment of a largely barren Hemsted Forest last month. We started at the Bonsai Bank end and worked our way through the forest to parts we`d not been to before. The old larches held plenty of common tits and finches feeding in the canopy along with a single Brambling, Treecreeper, Nuthatch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Jay and Goldcrest; Coal Tit was easily the most numerous member of the family throughout the wood. Large flocks of Fieldfares and Redwings flew over the wood calling involving up to 500 birds, while both Buzzard and Kestrel seen and Tawny Owl heard.

                                Woodland Trust section

                                Lesser Redpoll

  It was good to see several managed clearings suitable for Duke of Burgundy butterflies (mental note to revisit site in spring). A damp thicket was where we heard and eventually saw a Marsh Tit our first for quite a few years, plus Bullfinch and Long-tailed Tit. A superb section of open clearings owned by the Woodland Trust, complete with a view point across the canopy, provided a flock of 11 Lesser Redpolls and a Siskin feeding on birch catkins. We finished off amongst conifers enjoying a flock of 30 Crossbills which the pics below don't do justice too, although they looked superb through optics.

                                               Crossbills in the gloom

  So, by today's standards a pretty decent return for a morning amongst the mud and timber, despite not finding Gos, Lesser pecker or Hawfinch (we set the bar high!) We were both impressed with the mosaic of mixed woodland on offer though, some of which should be suitable for the likes of  Nightjar, Tree Pipit and Woodlark come the spring. 
  Over the road at Godmersham we paid homage to last winters Hawfinch churchyard and scanned the River Stour where three Wood Ducks looked at home amongst the Moorhens, Coots and a Little Egret.

                                Wood Duck on the Stour

  This afternoon I called in at the bird reserve where a flighty drake Smew was on the lakes around Christmas Dell and a Kingfisher on Burrowes. At Boulderwall a Great White Egret and three distant Cattle Egrets on the fields and, at last, a Tree Sparrow on the feeders was new for the year.