Wednesday November 6

Its been an interesting morning. I had a very pleasant meeting at Middle Spernal with Sophie, an ecologist employed by the Heart of England Forest.

Most of the land on which I birdwatch has been acquired by the Heart of England Forest, a project begun and originally funded by the late Felix Dennis. Apart from initially receiving confirmation that I had permission to birdwatch there, I am slightly embarrassed to say that I have had little contact with them over the last 12 years.

Sophie is keen to change that, and for my part I am very happy to supply them with bird records, particularly breeding data covering the last dozen years and on an ongoing basis. I just have to knuckle down to extract the data.

I was very pleased to learn that the Heart of England Forest team are anxious to improve biodiversity across their whole land, and that they appreciate that some land accords with this aim without necessarily being planted on. They also do not appear to be responsible for the draining of the pool, and may be unaware of the pipe through which the water is draining away. I am hopeful that something can be done about that.

After the meeting I went for a quick stroll around the patch. The birds present were pretty much the usual ones. The pick being at least 68 Fieldfares, 11 Snipe flying around, a Stonechat, and 42 Black-headed Gulls (more than usual).

Fieldfare

I bumped into Sue for the first time for months, and learnt that she and her husband were moving to Devon. I'm very sorry that Sue, the champion of the Netherstead House Martin colony, will no longer be around to keep an eye on them.

Finally, I have been tinkering with my blog list, and have added my new favourite blog; Not Quite Scilly to the list. Its much funnier and better than mine, so if you haven't already done so I suggest you check it out.