Lavington Common, West Sussex 28/05/2016

A beautiful day with some excellent birds. It was very hot, and most birds were probably snoozing, but I got some reasonably decent birds. The walk began with a Blackbird serenading me from the car park, and as I crossed the heath, a Mistle Thrush bounded away. Suddenly, a thin and scratchy song burst through the air, and I scanned the tops of the heather for the singer. As the binoculars came into focus, I found a small, long-tailed bird sitting atop a gorse. My binoculars were a rubbish cheap pair that I had bought from a supermarket, so I could not see that much, but I realised that it was no ordinary warbler that I had ever seen before. A quick look through the bird book confirmed my thoughts of Dartford Warbler, and sure enough, as I got closer it was that species. Still on the heath, a large flock of Goldfinches rose into the air, all twittering like mad, before settling and giving good views not a hundred yards down the path. Also, another song was trickling above my head, and this time I had more trouble locating the singer. I was quite certain from the song that it was a Skylark, but, try as I might, I could not locate it. All of a sudden, a bird dropped out of the sky, and landed on the path. Sure enough, it was a Skylark. The day ended well, with Swifts screaming over my back garden, and my year list was on 84.