We met at 10:00 at Stoughton Down Car Park (SU815126), north of Chichester. As part of the walk, we were exploring the use of Merlin, the Bird Sounds Identification App, which most members had downloaded onto their phones.  Merlin identifies bird song helping us to pick out and identify bird song and then see the birds.  See more about Merlin below.

The weather was not great, cloudy but warm. The first birds singing were Skylark over the field and Wood Pigeon gently cooing in the trees by the car park. We walked along the bridleway and into Wildhams Wood, which is a stand of Beech managed by Forestry England.  It is open access land with a network of paths open to the public.

Ken and Merlin soon identified the song of Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Great Tit, Wren and a very vocal Coal Tit.  A Song Thrush was serenading us from the other side of the wood. At the Douglas Fir stand, both Firecrest and Goldcrest were picked up by Merlin and some of us who have not lost the ability could hear their high pitched song.  After a few hundred metres, a gap in the trees gave a view towards the ridge above Kingley Vale NR. We were hoping for Goshawk, but the cloudy conditions were not in our favour.

A little further on Marsh Tits did not disappoint, we saw and heard two pairs.  They seem to favour mature Beech woods in Sussex.  We continued round the circular route and as we emerged from the wood to return to the cars three Buzzards and a Red Kite were soaring overhead.

Apart from birds, some early woodland flowers were seen including common dog violets, primrose, wood anemones,wild garlic and the first bluebells.

In total we saw/heard 23 species of birds: in order of appearance:

Pheasant, Skylark, Wood pigeon, Chiffchaff, Great Tit, Wren, Coal Tit, Hawfinch, Song Thrush, Mistle Thrush, Blackbird, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Redwing, Firecrest, Goldcrest, Jay, Marsh Tits  (2 pairs), Nuthatch, Buzzard, Stock Dove, Crow, Raven, Red Kite

‘Merlin’ is a bird identification app developed by Cornell Lab at Cornell University, USA. It listens to the bird sounds around you and shows real time suggestions for which bird is singing. It can be downloaded to your phone from https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/ . Merlin Bird ID is completely free, other Bird Song Apps are available .

Linda Smith

Deer Jawbone Identification by John Arnott
John Arnott researched the deer jaw bone found during the field outing.  The presence of a third molar indicated it was an adult.  He contacted the British Deer Society website  https://bds.org.uk/information-advice/issues-with-deer/. for further information. "Ask a BDS expert". They replied the next day: " As the jawbone shows full adult dentition the measurements in your photographs are consistent with a fallow, most probably a buck.  For comparison I have measured adult roe jaws in my collection which vary between 15.5 – 16.4 cm  from the bottom rear of the mandible to the incisor sockets. "