Last night was the second and probably last Nightingale Walk of the year. On Monday at Cliffe Polls we unfortunately hadn't heard one at all even though there are 10 singing males this year, so I was understanably nervous about last night. It had rained on and off most of the day and I even had thoughts of cancellation.
At 6.00 it started to rain as I made my way to Northward Hill, which again didn't bode well, so we gathered in the carpark on a very overcast and spitty rainy evening. I was amazed when in addition to myself and Warren, Des and Carol another 18 people turned up.
I thought it might be a good idea to slowly walk through the farm gate and along towards Ernest Hemsley View Point to try to pick up a Nightingale, we stopped at the bend by the small marsh viewpoint, but nothing. We did however get good views of the Canada and Greylags with their goslings.
We retraced our steps and continued on up to Sweeney Viewpoint, then down to the marsh gate and across the bridge to Winship. Not much was singing aside from the ocassional Cettis' Warbler, Blackbird and Blackcap.
We then continued up the hill, listening out all the way as on a warm and sunny evening Nightingales would be serenading us from the scrub either side.
Some of us chose to stay by the bench and others went along the two pathways at this point. About 200 yards into the wood Warrens' group managed to hear a singing male, so we all joined him and stood for about 15 minutes bathing in the pure joy of his song. As usual he appeared to be a matter of a couple of yards into the bush, but no sightings unfortunately. A cuckoo started calling in the distance to add to the magic of the moment.
We made our way back down then up to Sweeney where some of us rested and took in the view over the expanse and to Essex.
There is a Willow Tree almost back at the carpark where a male is pretty much guaranteed to sing, I wasn't going to say anything to the group as that would have almost certainly put the kiss of death on it. But even as goodbyes and thank yous were said as half the group started to walk down I could hear him singing full belt. Joining them we had a good ten minutes of solid gold Nightingale.
So in the end despite my pessimistic misgivings, 'It was alright on the night!'
My thanks to Des and Carol for organising it and Warren and Robin for stewarding.