Great Bookham Common

As I am off till the 5th and at home in London I have decided to go birding at some of my old haunts. Today I spent the afternoon on Great Bookham Common, this site is owned by The National Trust,This is a site that I know very well I used to work on the edge of the common for six years, so I did a lot of my lunch time birding there. This is a easy site to do by using the train as the station is right on the edge of the common, from the north platform you can go straight on to the common. I left the station and walked east taking the first turning on the right after crossing over the railway this brings you to a car park where there is a lot of clearing going on, scanning to the right this is a good spot to see Hawfinch with a bit of effort I did manage to find one bird, the rest of my walk is just a zig zag across the common, There where two large parties of Long Tailed Tits, a flock of mixed tits including Blue, Great & Coal, there where quite a few Nuthatches that where very vocal a few Tree Creepers, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, lots of Robins, and quite a number of Gold Crests I also found 2 Brambling, as for woodpeckers I did quite well 2 Green, 4 Great Spotted calling and just to make my day I found A Lesser Spotted have only seen them here on a couple of times over the years. In the paddocks on the edge of the common I found a few Mistle Thrushes, Redwing & some Fieldfare. Other birds seen included Carrion Crow, Jay,Woodpigeon, Collared Dove, House Sparrow, Magpie, Kestrel, Moorhen, Coot, Mallard, Wren, Starling, Blackbird, Song Thrush.

This was a very pleasant afternoon mild and clear and very quite I only passed a couple of dog walkers & one jogger.

In the summer this was a good site to see and hear Nightingale not sure what it will be like next year with all the clearing that is going on it is also a good place for butterflies you get White Admiral, & there is a spot for Purple Emperor witch I have seen here, As well as other butterflies

So all in all a very enjoyable afternoon at a site I have not been to for a couple of years, Off to The Wetland Centre tomorrow not really a old haunt but I do remember it when it was Barn Elms Reservoirs

Other sites I am hoping to visit in the next 2 weeks include Stokers Lake, Lee Valley Country Park (Fishers Green) Wraysbury & Sunnymead Pits, Sevenoaks Wild Fowl, .Rainham Marshes, & slightly further a field Slimbridge