But we need not have worried. As we settled down into a walk around the reserve we all filled gaps in our knowledge, which through our mutual interest meant that any hesitation or shyness was lost to sheer enthusiasm for the subject. Actually I had seen that before - members of the professional staff of Sussex Wildlife Trust never talk down to volunteers because we are all full of enthusiasm for the work.

However, the bird society spent happy three hours during which we identified 19 species of bird, some of which I had never noticed before on the reserve. So we can now add to our pleasure: goldcrests, marsh tits, willow warblers and, what our visitors were particularly excited about were spotted flycatchers. I believe they are quite rare, and the members added that they had not seen so many in one place for a long time. A group of the birds were in a line of chestnut coppice beside our small heathland, darting across to the heather quite unbothered about the row of binoculars trained upon them as if they had been doing the show for years!

The members of the society, before they left, agreed to do a proper bird count for us in the spring of 2005 - which pleased us. But we wondered if a seagull, at what looked like 30,000ft high, was really eligible to be included in the day's count of 19 species!

John Hall © 2003