16 members joined the Puttenham Common walk on a day when the weather was fair but windy, which in turn meant that bird numbers were down. Despite ongoing work to restore/repair the dam and road between the Tarn and Cutmill Pond, the Pond provided  a pair of Mandarin ducks lurking on the far side, which were then joined by a further 8 flying in. Mallard, as ever, were present, plus one Kingfisher was heard and later seen, along with a Grey Heron on sentinel duty.

The group moved on past The Tarn, where 11 Black Headed Gulls were noted, apparently oblivious to the roadworks. We then walked through oak woodland, up to the acid grassland and heathy area at the Bronze Age camp, where some late House Martins and a Swallow were flying. After enjoying the view at Hill Brow where there was sadly very little bird activity, the group moved on towards the Top Car park, with mature gorse bushes and scrub, in the hope of seeing or hearing a Dartford Warbler or Stonechat. However, none were forthcoming on this occasion. En route, we picked up 8 Carrion Crows, 2 Jackdaws, Raven, Buzzard (and also a dead young buzzard), plus heard numerous Nuthatch.

The Hampton Estate is doing a lot of work to restore the Common, with clear felling of selected areas of secondary woodland, exposing the topography, and, hopefully, allowing the valley mires to re-establish. This work has been coupled with re-introducing grazing by Sussex cattle (using virtual fencing) – 2 seen on our walk, which should increase the biodiversity. A final stop on the acid grassland area between the Top and Middle Car Parks, provided distant sightings of 2 Spotted Flycatchers – huge thanks to one of our members who carried his scope all the way around the Common, which allowed better views. Altogether, 33 species were recorded, with the hope that the ecological enhancement work will provide even better species numbers in the future.