Bird Meeting at Merstone, 20th May 2017

Seven members met at the old railway station at Merstone for a walk to Horringford and led by Anthea Blackwell. It rained briefly at the beginning but it soon turned into a lovely morning. As expected we saw farmland and hedgerow birds with some migrants nesting. As the leaf cover was very dense  we mainly identified species by their song and calls although we did see some including the numerous Common Whitethroats. There were a few Swallows flying about. House Sparrows mainly can be found at the beginning of the walk where there are a few houses. Blackcap, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff could be heard or seen in the hedgerows and trees lining the route. Several Sky Lark were heard and a Green Woodpecker was calling persistently on downland but did not show itself. Several Mallard flew over. A number of Herring Gulls flew over and around and landed over a bank to our left probably on a farm reservoir. On some wet land three Canada Geese were grazing, a Grey Heron landed and a Coot was seen. At least ten Wren were heard singing throughout the morning. In all 27 species were noted.  Also there were some beautiful specimens of Dryad’s Saddle,  Polyporus squamosus on a dead Horse Chestnut. Jackie Hart