So did I in fact make it to the dawn chorus? Well yes! It was perhaps the coldest dawn chorus I have ever been to, my feet were actually hurting towards the end of the walk. The walk was ably led by Ruth from the Surrey Bird Club who clearly knew Bookham Common very well. The cold didn't help of course and summer migrants were a bit quiet but we did get garden warbler, blackcap, chiffchaff and whitethroat. Of nightingales, not a peep or a 'jug, jug' out of them or indeed him as there only seems to be one male who, with no opposition, wasn't stretching the vocals. The decline of this species here is sad and slightly puzzling as the habitat still looks good for them. A good reminder that Bookham has a good habitat mix with all that scrub, mature woodland and some nice ponds. I am back here at the end of May to lead an RSPB Local Group walk so looking forward to that.
Back to the car with, in my case, the express intention to drive somewhere, indeed anywhere just to get the cars heaters on my feet. That drive took me to Papercourt (of course) which will feature greatly in this diary. Croissant followed by coffee (apparently a favourite combination of my friend Mary!) and to begin the walk, a stroll past Prews Cottages and this Goldfinch. Now this isn't a perfect image by any stretch (it was also dead lucky) but couldn't help including it!




Papercourt Marshes is a Surrey Wildlife Trust reserve (I have a permit by the way!); a nice reedbed, bit of open water, few trees and some scrub - brilliant mix! For the first time this year, it was heaving with reed warblers, I estimated twelve singing males. Difficult to photograph as they stay down the reed stem for the most part but one day........ The place also had three garden warblers and maybe eight pairs of little grebe (still hiding). Also had some mistle thrush doing some kind of relay back and forth across the reedbed, looked a bit like they were unloading the weeks shopping. Also bumped into this guy, photograph taken through some vegetation as he would have bolted had I moved, he certainly knew I was there.




So if we had reed warbler, presumably the sedge warblers were in? Yep, Papercourt Lock is the place for these and maybe three were present (there will be more further out). One poor photo later, which I will not reproduce here and I moved on to reed bunting, a bit more accommodating as you can see. Anyone else find it impossible to spell 'accommodating' without spell check?



One a week maximum is my likely output from now on so don't panic! N