Not exactly up at dawn, but an enthusiastic group of about 25 joined Steve Joul at 7 am for our annual bird song walk in Adel Woods.
The weather was fresh but dry, and we had a good start in the car park of Old Leo’s Rugby Club, with a good sighting of a heron flying over the playing fields.
Watching a bullfinch
We did a slightly different route from our usual one – we walked down to the cricket club and then down towards the Slabbering Baby before going up to the moor, continuing to the Buck Stone, descending to the Seven Arches and finally returning up the Meanwood Valley trail past the site of the Slabbering Baby (it is not actually there at the moment because it has been taken away for restoration), and then returning to the car park via the cricket club.
As usual we saw or heard a wide variety of birds. Highlights for your correspondent were:
- an excellent sighting of a tree creeper. This clung stock still to the side of a tree to the right of the path down to the Slabbering Baby. It was so still for so long that Steve joked that it was a stuffed one we had pinned to the tree last night! However, eventually the tree creeper snapped out of its trance and flew off
- hearing the drumming of woodpeckers throughout the walk
- down by the Seven Arches, an excellent sighting of a nuthatch which danced around the branches of a tree with gravity defying skill
- hearing the descending song of a willow warbler
- seeing a blue tit going in and out of a FOAW nest box
As usual we heard the sounds of ubiquitous chief chaffs and wrens. Other species we saw or heard were:
- heron
- robin
- starling
- carrion crow
- thrush
- tree creeper
- jay
- wood pigeon
- bullfinch
- swift
- greater spotted woodpecker
- blackbird
- black cap
- willow warbler
- magpie
- dunnock
- blue tit
- great tit
- nuthatch
That’s 21 species in all – not bad for a couple of hours stroll!
Thanks once more to Steve Joul for a really interesting guided walk, and thanks to everyone who joined us!
Watching birds down by the Seven Arches
Friends of Adel Woods 