A walk from Bin Combe to Cockercombe and back yesterday produced the following sightings:

1 Stock Dove, 3 Buzzard, 23 Coal Tit, 1 Swallow, 7 Wood Warbler, 3 Willow Warbler, 27 Chiffchaff, 11 Blackcap, 1 Garden Warbler (singing from bottom of Bin Combe), 22 Goldcrest, 3 Treecreeper, 3 Song Thrush, 6 Spotted Flycatcher, 8 Pied Flycatcher, 1 House Sparrow (Quantock Combe), 1 Tree Pipit, 8 Chaffinch, 1 Bullfinch and 12 Siskin.

Wood Warblers appear to have definitively shifted from the traditional Oak-wooded areas in the northern section of the hills to the more Beech/Sitka Spruce-dominated forestry in the south and east. Whether this is due to cooler conditions in the forestry creating a higher abundance of insects or due to more understory cover, I am unsure. Though the best places were generally in areas of beech directly adjacent to the conifers.

I also recorded 3-4 singing males in Duke’s Plantation last Tuesday including a bird that sounded very similar to Bonelli’s.