2007-05-27

Combs Wood and Oxton Bogs

Had a nice afternoon walk around an area called Combs Wood north of Oxton with my dad this afternoon. The area seems to hold the typical farmland/countryside birds with plenty of birds heard, but not so many seen. The more notable sightings started with a Skylark in a farmer's field, and a female Blackcap in a hedgerow along the edge of the wood. We followed the path along hearing at least one Chiffchaff and some other warbler, that we didn't know. A Great Spotted Woodpecker was calling sporadically, and feeding at the top of a tall tree, and a Green Woodpecker was laughing nearby.

Heading down the steeper part of the track towards the main road produced a family of Great Tit, with the parents dashing back and forth bringing food back to a hole in a tree. Another Chiffchaff was calling from a sea of green leaves above, with little hope of being found.

Out on the main road, the Green Woodpecker was still calling, and soon located sitting proudly at the top of a large oak tree. I picked up my first Red-legged Partridge, sat in the middle of a fallow field in plain view, and a few more were further up the road where we'd parked.

On the way back, we had a quick look at the seemingly non-private part of Oxton Bogs, which was pretty overgrown and hidden away. The only birds of note were a couple of Treecreeper, which stood out in the dark closed-in woods around the ford.

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