Gill's Lap: Bonfire

Two volunteers assist an Ashdown Forest Ranger to manage the rare lowland heath habitat up on the top of the Forest near Gill's Lap.

One of the beneficiaries of such management is the rare Dartford Warbler (Sylvia undata), a bird right on the edge of its range in southern England.

The Ranger kindly informed me that a couple of males were currently in the area where they were working, and by following his directions, I was enormously privileged first to hear the 'glassy' alarm call of one of them, and then to see him flying in his distinctive manner between gorse bushes, alighting briefly on a young Birch tree in between.