Category Birds
Birds at dawn
Twelve of us met at the sports ground to have our ears opened to the variety of birdsong by Tom. As ever, it wasn’t really at dawn, since the birds had been up for more than an hour, but at least the cacophony of birdsong had by now quietened down making it a bit easier […]
Springtime surprises at Tablehurst
There are often surprises when you go out for a walk, even if it is somewhere that you know really well. You may wander off your usual route and find a corner of the countryside that you didn’t know existed before, or you may notice a plant, an insect, or a bird that you don’t […]
Dawn chorus walk
Mercifully, the weather didn’t turn out to be as bad as the forecast suggested when we gathered at 5.30am for a (slightly late(ish)) dawn chorus walk on International Dawn Chorus Day. It was still a bit drizzly, but that soon eased off and we ended up having a fascinating walk along the Forest Way led […]
Spring at Tablehurst
The weather forecast really wasn’t very good, and I had expectations of no-one else turning up, but happily there was no rain, even if it was a bit overcast and chilly. So, five of us managed to have a very short walk through the farm looking out for birds, spring plants and some invertebrates. Heading […]
Wildlife at Tablehurst and Emerson: Winter and Early Spring
Since the beginning of the year we’ve been recording any wildlife we see in the kilometre square TQ4335, which is the one that includes the core bit of Tablehurst, plus Emerson as well as a part of the Forest Way and the Medway. It is an interesting way to get more familiar with all the […]
A cold day in March on the Forest Way
When we planned a cycle ride along the Forest Way we were hoping for some nice early spring sunshine, find some basking snakes and various small creatures starting to come alive as the temperature starts to rise. However, only a small group of us ventured out on what was really rather a cold Sunday afternoon […]
Wildfowl at Weirwood
Completely coincidentally, our visit to the reservoir happened to be on a survey date for the Wetland Bird Survey, so we met up with Bob Johnson and other volunteers of the Friends of Weir Wood who had been counting birds there all day. Pleasingly, there was a Snipe visible (through a telescope) pretty much as […]
Birds of the heath
Despite all the wet weather leading up to our walk on 9 November, we ended up being graced with a gorgeous autumn day to explore a corner of Ashdown Forest. Led by our inspiring bird expert, Tom Forward, it was a beautiful introduction to some of our local species at this time of year. Barely […]
Dawn chorus walk
The second walk of the Forest Row natural history group got us up bright and early on International Dawn Chorus Day (4 May 2014) for a fascinating walk led by Tom Forward. I think there were 17 of us, which was fantastic for a six o’clock start. Here’s the list of birds we heard, each […]
Nature's book 