Tuesday 20 June – Compton Dando

It was an extremely hot summer’s day which probably dissuaded some from undertaking a four mile walk and so it was just twelve of us that set off from The Compton Inn at Compton Dando. There were a good number of common birds around the village including House Sparrows, Collared Dove, House Martins, Swifts, Swallows and Jackdaws (25 plus). We also had views of a Grey Wagtail flying along the brook that flows through the village. After a very short walk to the bridge over the River Chew a Dipper was spotted in the river but it was difficult to see through the trees and so not everyone got a view of it before it moved on. We then walked through some pasture land bordered with woodland where we added Greenfinch, Dunnock, Blackcap, Goldfinch, Whitethroat, Wren and an early morning Buzzard was seen. A Mallard was also seen in the river. The next part of the walk took us away from the river up a quite steep path through the woods where a Chiffchaff, Goldcrest and Long-tailed Tit were heard. We crossed a beautiful meadow where we saw Meadow Brown butterflies and a few Marbled Whites. Song Thrush, Green Woodpecker and Nuthatch were heard and some of us had a good view of a Jay. We reached Woollard and made a very slight diversion for another view of the River Chew from the road bridge. There were a lot of damselflies over the river (beautiful demoiselles) and a Moorhen and Pied Wagtail were spotted. Then there was that telltale flash of blue and we had excellent views of a Kingfisher flying away from us. It sped around the bend in the river about 100 metres away. A few seconds later it returned but saw us and did a very fast u-turn and was gone. We found a nice spot by the river for our coffee break and then started the walk back along the other side of the River Chew. We added Lesser Black-backed Gull, Swift, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Magpie, Bullfinch and Coal Tit. Some of the group also saw a second Kingfisher flying along the river. As we came towards the end of the walk we had good views of a Green Woodpecker and a Raven and we finished our species count with a Grey Heron. Considering the high temperature we finished with a good total of 43 species seen or heard and also saw all three of our target birds: Grey Wagtail, Dipper and Kingfisher. Most importantly we all returned safe and sound with no reports of heat exhaustion! Thanks to Nick for keeping his usual accurate birdlist.(Thanks to Mike for leading)

Mike Landen