Lamberts Castle

Yesterday I made what has become the first of an annual set of visits to Lamberts Castle Hill. This Iron Age hill fort is managed by the National Trust and has over last few years become very popular with dog walkers.

The Trust seem to have embarked on a clearance scheme and every year there are fewer trees and more open spaces. This and the general disturbance from large numbers of visitors seems to have driven most of the breeding species away.
Up to just a few years ago the woods and clearings held breeding populations of Wood Warbler, Redstart and Spotted Flycatcher. I last saw a Wood Warbler around six years ago and Redstart about four years ago. It is still possible to find the Spotted Flycatcher but whether they breed now I'm not sure.
So every year from April to June I still make a few visits to see if any of these species are in evidence and now sadly most years I leave disappointed.
Yesterday there were a few singing Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs and around 20-30 Meadow Pipits were feeding near the car park.

Willow Warbler

On the way home I called into my 'patch' The Gravel Pits at Chard Junction. Still no sign of any 'Hirundines' but the East Lake held 3 Mute Swans,4 Tufted Duck,7 Mallards,2 Coots and oddly only 2 Canada Geese.
The West Lake in the Quarry held 28 Herring Gulls and 1 Lesser Black Back Gull.
The numbers of singing Willow Warblers had risen from Fridays total of one to three today.