A morning walk at Steps Bridge and Dunsford Woods

What a beautiful Spring morning! It was a pleasant surprise to be walking in sunshine and a reasonable temperature after having so much rain and cold on previous walks. Some of us even had to discard hats and fleeces as the temperature hit 16 degrees.

The warmer weather brought out the butterflies and we had our first sighting of yellow brimstone butterflies near the bridge, followed by other butterfly sightings in the woods, including peacocks and comma. A few of the party were also lucky enough to spot a kingfisher from the bridge.

As we started off along the river a group of 4-5 deer with black/grey backs ran along the opposite bank. Identification, courtesy of Google later, suggested that they were fallow deer.

Some of the nineteen strong group took the ‘low path’ along the river, through the woods and on to the meadow and another smaller group climbed up the valley through the woods. Unfortunately, none of us heard or saw any woodpeckers. The group at the top were treated to a fly-past by a raven, giving its characteristic croak. We also saw a badger sett, which may have been in use, or not, and a lot of very active wood ants.

Some of the group saw siskins and we all saw grey wagtails. Between us, we saw 22 bird species.

The daffodils were splendid and almost stole the show, but the real treat was seeing a pair of dippers on the way back to the car park, who gave us a real opportunity to study them dipping and swimming along the opposite river bank. A lovely end to a good walk and nice to welcome some new faces to the group.

Yvonne Hamblin

22 bird species recorded: Mallard; Wood Pigeon; Moorhen; Buzzard; Kingfisher; Raven; Coal Tit; Blue Tit; Great Tit; Long-tailed Tit; Chiffchaff; Goldcrest; Wren; Nuthatch; Song Thrush; Mistle Thrush; Blackbird; Robin; Dipper; Grey Wagtail; Chaffinch; Siskin.