18 people joined this walk, including RSPB members, some of the Common’s conservation volunteers and Alex, one of Thursley’s Reserve Managers. Weather conditions proved challenging: weeks of warmth and sunshine ended with this cold and windy morning. The hobby, redstarts, flying curlew, whitethroats,  blackcaps, garden warbler and little grebes regularly found a few days earlier could not be seen or heard. On this walk, a curlew called very briefly and was glimpsed in vegetation by some of the group.

Despite the wind, goldfinches, a linnet and several stonechats were seen perched on scrub along our route. A Dartford warbler sang briefly from the top of a gorse bush and there was a tree pipit near Parish Field. Willow warblers were, as usual, in the trees at the bottom of South Bog. Some of our group noticed woodlarks flying with another woodlark heard. Pudmore had only tufted ducks, sharply-reduced numbers of mallards and Canada Geese with a single lapwing nearby.

Number of species (including those only heard): 22