Its early April and time for another visit to the Big Pond area of The British. This combination of scattered mature beech trees, marshy grassland, sheep grazed acid grassland and upland heath dominated by bracken has historically produced regular sightings of ring ouzel. So a cool misty morning appeared to be just the right conditions to pick up a bird or two passing through.
Following the route of an old tram line and through an avenue of self seeded alder trees I could hear both singing chiffchaff and willow warbler, a couple of redpoll called frequently as they flew overhead. I paused by a gap in the trees to view the wider landscape of The British heath. When I held a bird ringing licence this open landscape supported, whinchat, stonechat and tree pipit I even once found a grey partridge nest. Nowadays, it's rapidly losing its open feel in favour of scrub. Onwards towards an imposing yet derelict red bricked engine building two stock dove took to the wing.At Big Pond the air was filled with calling raven and single singing wheatear. Over the decaying Big Pond dam I caught sight of a couple of parachuting tree pipit, a reed bunting could be heard in the distance. On the return journey I made a mental note of a number of veteran beech trees to measure and upload to the Woodland Trust's Ancient Tree Inventory.
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