Magnus A and Christian C joined me for a grand tour of the patch, on a changeable but mostly spring-like day, partly thanks to the first singing Yellowhammer of the year that I have heard - my day's highlight. We also located one of the Little Owls and had three Lesser Redpolls of note but once again a blank was drawn on what I am counting as my second concerted Lesser Spotted Woodpecker search of the year, though it is early days and I will continue looking. A look around Banstead Downs in the afternoon produced another two Stonechats, which by the sound of it may have been wintering in an area of young scrub, and a fly-over redpoll but a search of the traditional Firecrest site along the western flank of the golf course produced no hoped-for jewels.
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| Stonechat pair at Banstead Downs - rather unusual for the site but they may have been wintering in recent months |
