By the time I had reached the forest at 6.30am the fog had thankfully lifted at least from the higher ground to reveal a beautiful spring day.Most of the time I had was spent in the Old Lodge reserve,although I did walk out onto the more open areas of the forest several times where in past years I had found Dartford Warbler.This visit though was to prove unsuccessful,I wasn`t that surprised due to the fact we have just been through one of the harshest winters in many years and the species must have been knocked back very hard.