Birdwatching with the Discoverers – you never know what you might see!!It was a lovely sunny morning when a few of the Discoverers joined Peter and myself for our new monthly Birdwatching Nature Walk. We set off from the Pen Ponds kiosk and walked towards Crown Field in search of singing skylarks.We saw the usual jackdaws, parakeets and magpies ever present near the kiosk and heard green woodpeckers and great spotted woodpeckers. Blue and great tits were flying about quickly from tree to tree. As we arrived near White Lodge, we spotted a red kite flying right above us. Down into White Lodge Plantation, we heard the distinctive song of a mistle thrush. We made our way to the edge of the wood adjoining onto Crown Field, still no sign of skylarks but a buzzard was spotted circling high above in the blue sky. But our biggest treat was yet to come: a little owl! Sitting just above us in an oak tree it was staring down at us. Moving to one side to get a better look, we realised that there was another little owl sitting right next to the first one! A rare treat.
As we walked back towards the ponds, we saw all our usual waterbirds and we could appreciate all the work that has just been done on the island in the middle of Upper Pen Pond, already recolonized by cormorants, herons and Greylag geese. The only missing birds on that morning were the skylarks which were nether seen nor heard, but that’s the way it goes sometimes, you never know what we might see!
