Hopeful that spring will arrive...

Well, I managed to get up at 6am to do the bird transect at Thorpe Wood. I have to say that it was remarkably gloomy and very cold (only 1.5C) as I walked round, but some birds were singing, mostly robins, joined by occasional great tits and a song thrush. A large group of redwings was quite a surprise, chatteringly raucously in the tree tops. I was also pleased to see a pair of stock doves, who nest in holes in old trees, so might well be breeding there.

The highlight of the visit was getting a good view of a pair of great spotted woodpeckers, and watching the male drum on a hollow dead ash branch...and then hearing another woodpecker drumming in response from a different part of the wood. I hadn't taken my camera, as it would have been a distraction, but the light was appalling anyway.

I was very pleased to get home at just after half past seven, and have a hot bowl of porridge and a ginger tea. Then it was off again to walk Rosie. After walking round the dry side of the Rowing Lake we ended up at Thorpe Wood.

No great spotted woodpeckers to be seen on my second visit (when I had the camera) but I saw a stock dove again, and added tree-creeper and a couple of other birds to my personal site list (not that they could be added to the transect data). It was interesting that quite a few more birds were singing later in the morning - perhaps a result of the cold?