Phone reception is at best poor in the Forest of Dean and unfortunately
I missed the various forms of communication from Steve yesterday afternoon
about some Wild Boar he had found very close to Speech House so after breakfast
and checking out we trundled the short distance down the road to meet up with
him for the outside chance they would still be in the same area of forest.
The crew were mouse quiet as we walked down the track and
with no Boar in view we crept into the forest in the hope that they would be
foraging in a tangle.About 200 yards in
Steve found them and we got to watch three skinny sows with at least 21
variously humbugged piglets in tow as they snuffled and rooted amongst the
safety of several fallen trees.
Wild Boar - so cryptic
Wild Boar - Steve Young
We stayed upwind but the breeze shifted and one of the sows
suddenly knew we were there and stopped and stared.Their eyesight is poor and she came a little
closer but her nose and teddy bear ears certainly found us and after a few
minutes she huffed and turned and the whole procession melted away.
Look at those ears!
Follow me!
What a special encounter and the second time that Steve has come
up with the piggy goods for us.It was
still trying to be a blue sky day and there was lots of bird noise with
Treecreepers, Nuthatches, our first Green Woodpecker and both Song and MistleThrushes as we walked back up to the van where I discovered that the slightly
low tyre had become an almost flat.
We drove back into Parkend where I deposited the crew at the
Hawfinches and followed Steve into Whitecroft where the local tyre man repaired
the puncture (huge screw) and had me back on the road in 15 minutes and in time
to see two male Hawfinches myself too.
Hawfinch - just to prove we saw one!
With some time left and the sun still shining we went back
to the Upper Cannop Pond to try for the male Brambling which was seen as soon
as we reached the feeding station!He
shuffled around looking resplendent in his moulting finery with the brown of
winter slowly wearing down to the inky black of summer.Some of his feathers were exquisite with his
upper tail coverts were white with two long black tear drops in them before the
white rump and lower back while the white flanks feathers each had a ghosting a
grey leaf shape.
Brambling
Brambling
Brambling
I am not entirely sure that he was in tip top condition like
one or two of the Chaffinches but it was still a joy to see one this close and
in such plumage.I think it was a new
bird for most of the group. The Siskins even came down and the Marsh Tits made a
couple of visits among the throng of Great, Blue and Coal Tits present.
Time was getting on so we walked back and watched the
Mandarins, crazy Mute Swans incessantly chasing a dumb Canada Goose just like last
year and flycatching Grey Wagtails.
The double foot surge
Tufted Ducks
A glorious Mallard
Little Grebe
Grey Wagtail
It was the perfect end to the trip.An hour later I had dropped four of them at Bristol
before the cross country route to Maggie’s and further wiggles to Great Ryburgh
and then home to Lowestoft.
I think we all must have crossed everything all night as it
dawned quite bright and definitely not damp so after breakfast we popped
straight down to Parkend where a male Hawfinch was swiftly found at the top of
the Limes. I could hear at least one
more calling but could not find it while singing Bullfinch was similarly
elusive. Only two other people turned up – Steve Young
who now lives in the village and Jeff Delve on a break from the Essex coast –
always such a small world.
The sun was properly coming through and although early I
opted to take us straight to New Fancy view in case the Goshawks were feeling
lively after so many days of utter gloom.
The first two Buzzards were seen before we got out of the
van and on the walk up we could hear Bullfinches again and even the grunts of
Wild Boar but they must have already been moving away from us and we did not
see them.
I think it took about five minutes to see the first Goshawk –
a female found by Blue Simon and over the next hour were had them on view on
many occasions with at least four birds, both sexes and both immatures and
adults noted.It so made up for the
disappointment of last year.Buzzards
and Ravens were everywhere but only they came close but at least the Goshawks
looked perfect in the scopes.
Goshawks
Goshawk - we were happy!
A Chiffchaff sung in the Birches and we could even hear the
little ‘prrup prrup prrup’ between singing sessions. More invisible Bullfinches
were below us and Siskins and Crossbills flew over while one group of six of
the latter even dropped in for a couple of minutes which was a treat for all of
us.
Chiffchaff
Common Crossbills
Common Crossbill
Common Crossbill
It was good to have a catch up with Jeff and Steve too and a
check for Adders only gave us sunning Common Lizard.
Common Lizard
Each little twig was a micro mossy world
Back to Speech House for a comfort stop and then off to Nags
Head for lunch and an afternoon stroll through the trees.The weather had started to change again with
skudding clouds and occasional light drizzle but we did pretty well with at least
eight singing Firecrest and views of Nuthatch, Treecreeper and the Tits.Song Thrushes, Blackbirds and a few Redwings
were in the leaf litter and Hawfinches were calling in the canopy above us.
Not for the first time - torpid Bombus terrestris in the hotel car park beds
A pair of Ravens were ‘popping’ down in the valley but all
our low level scanning failed to produce any Boar or Fallow Deer and just the
odd scared looking Grey Squirrel and with a female Goshawk seen cruising just over
the Larch canopy it had good reason to be!
Grey Squirrel
The Bluebells were just poking through and we found some interesting
fungi and lichens on the walk back to the van.
Cladonia digitata
Cladonia digitata
Foxgloves raring to go!
Evernia prunastri
Exidia truncata
Exidia truncata
Hard fern - Blechnum spicant
Anoplotrupes stercorosus
From here we dropped back down to Cannop Ponds and
approached the upper one from the road which took us past the Mandarins but not
the Dipper this time but we were after the feeding station where Jeff had earlier
seen a male Brambling. We stood and
waited and watched but only Chaffinches came down amongst the plethora of Tits
and the odd Nuthatch and Great Spotted Woodpecker.A female Sparrowhawk sent them all into a
frenzy and several Siskins were dangling in the Birches.
Chaffinches
It was getting cold and the breeze was once again picking up
so we ambled back and above the Pines opposite a male Goshawk ended up an
almost perfect day in the Forest.
A final Swan Breakfast (no actual wildfowl were consumed)
and then out of Wells (via the fabulous moss, fern and liverwort covered
walls!) and into the ever increasing gloom towards Glastonbury and beyond about
an hour later we made it to Steart and it had lifted just enough and mostly
stopped drizzling to allow a walk around the marshland pools.
Maidenhair Fern and Wall Scalewort - Porella platyphylla
Polypody
Polypody & Ivy Leaved Toadflax
Rusty-backed Fern
Rusty-backed Fern
Wall Scalewort - Porella platyphylla - I thought on my previous visits that this was a Moss but it is in fact a Liverwort
They were very quiet with just noisy Avocets and single
pairs of Redshank and Oystercatcher and Wigeon and Shelduck predominating with
the duck.It was very odd.
Oystercatcher
The scrubby bits held Cetti's Warblers, Reed Buntings and Stonechats and both the latter species regularly shared the same bush tops.Meadow Pipits ‘seeped’ over and two Water
Pipits came up from the main breach marsh where there were quite literally only
four Carrion Crows and a Little Egret.
Stonechat
I ticked off the usual fly and moth mines and was surprised
to see both Marsh Marigold and Cowslip in flower.Other than a host of dancing midges and three Scathophaga stercoraria there
were no insects at all.
Lesser Celandine
Marsh Marigold
Yellow Dug Fly - Scathophaga stercoraria
Cowslip
We took lunch up the coast and overlooking Bridgewater Bay
where for a change the tide was not all the way out but we could only find two
Curlew and five Shelduck flying around.What was gong on?There were no
birds at all on the exposed mud?There
were more Stonechats to watch and Greenfinches and Linnets bimbled over and as
we were leaving a female Marsh Harrier appeared close by and hunted the inland
pastures.
With the weather once again closing in I opted to make the
drive north to the Forest of Dean and in short order we were at Cannop Pond and
enjoying close views of a pinky white male Goosander and eight or so
Mandarins.A Kingfisher zipped across
and there was a pair pf Grey Wagtails around the sluice slope while Great, Blue
and Coal Tits and Chaffinches came down to the seed put out by others.
Goosander
Mandarin
Chaffinch
We followed the lakeside path and got closer to the
Mandarins and some Little Grebes and the Birches and Oaks gave us close views
of several pairs of Marsh Tits, Treecreeper and a brief Nuthatch.Song Thrushes were warming up and a few Redwing
and Siskin called over the trees.Scanning the tree tops across the way was a non-starter as you could not
see them!
I moved this Toad off the path. Others could be heard in the reed bed
Phytomyza ilicis on Holly - I have to post one each trip!
Mandarins
Wood Spurge
A scurrying alongside proved to be the first of two Bank
Vole encounters and you could see the run it had made in and put and under the
rooty overhang at the top of the path bank.A common but seldom seen rodent and it was a treat to get such prolonged
views.
Bank Vole
Bank Vole
Parmotrema perlatum
Usnia sp & Evernia prunastri
The Wild Boar had been to town on the verges with some
serious rotovating but we did not see any but the Robins were happily picking
around where they had turned over the surface the night before.
Robin
How would you like your lawn Sir?
Stereum hirsutum
The overspill
at the top pond always looks good for Dipper and for the first time there was
actually one there and it stayed on show for about twenty minutes and could be
seen properly going under the water and creating a small wake in the
process.It was certainly by best views
of one in the Forest.There were Grey
Wagtails and Pied Wagtails here too and you know I am a sucker for a Grey Wag every
day of the week!
Grey Wagtail
Dipper
Dipper
We retraced our steps as the Song Thrush volume ramped up
and nearer the bottom end it was replaced by the melancholy and considered song
of several Blackbirds. A final look at some close Mandarins and it really was
time to head up to Speech House to check in and chill before dinner.
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