A bright but windy day and we decided to go to Thursley to look for returning migrants, interesting residents and the over wintered Little Buntings.
The first find was the Little Buntings, not in their usual spot but very close and quite confiding.
Little Bunting
We carried on to the spot where we'd seen them and the Rustic Bunting last year to find a photographer sitting right where they usually like to feed. He couldn't understand why they weren't there as seed had been put out for them
We heard and saw several male Redstarts with views ranging from distant to fairly close.
Singing male Redstart
There were several Woodlark singing overhead with others seen foraging across the areas cleared both my last year's fire and for fire prevention.
Wood Lark
The Tree Pipits were conspicuous by their absence. Apparently two pairs have returned to the common, but not in the areas where we had walked.
It was a lovely morning with sightings of Curlew, Red Kite, Buzzard, Stonechat and Crossbill as well as the species already highlighted. We also heard the Cuckoo, so well photographed due to a plentiful supply of mealworms - we rather frown on manipulating the behaviour of birds in that way so avoided the photographers, being content just to have heard the call.
Of course no visit to Thursley is complete without a glimpse of a Dartford Warbler (or several as was the case today).
Dartford Warbler
Linnet