So much for the glorious spring weather and today dawned grey and damp which is not ideal for FoD bird finding but the Mistle Thrushes were in fine song around Speech House and two pairs were on the playing field with about 40 Redwings and two Pied Wagtails. We reassembled by the van after breakfast and watched Greenfinches and House Sparrows while Siskins and Goldfinches were in the Birches.
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| Redwing |
Two Bullfinches flew through and a Red Kite drifted over
while I could hear a Firecrest singing in the Redwood by the road. The day started properly at Parkend where the Hawfinches
were audible as we opened the van doors and we soon had at least a dozen
perched up in the tall Limes and several soon came down to feed under the Yews
where two cars full of big lenses were positioned but I have no idea whatsoever
why they put the seed down around two horrible lumps of concrete. I would have a nice mossy log (there are lots
round here!) all set up for the session!
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| Hawfinch |
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| Hawfinch - Steve Young - also from today. He took this from his car while we were Dippering! |
Anyway, we were all very happy and so ambled down the road
to check for Dippers behind the Fountain PH which thankfully did not take very
long at all this time with one un-ringed bird collecting leaves and zooming
back up the river and under the bridge.
Grey Wagtails came and went and a Green Woodpecker yaffled
and flew through while more Hawfinches could be heard the canopy and were
actually in what passes for this species song.
There were more Redwings with the sheep and we got prolonged views of a
pair of Treecreepers as well as Great Spotted Woodpeckers and Nuthatches.
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| Grey Wagtail |
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| Treecreeper |
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| Peligera Lichen sp and Maidenhair Spleenwort |
Annoyingly the light rain had returned and my hopes of a
classic Goshawk day were fast diminishing.
Back at the Hawfinches several birds were still coming down and I was
pleased to see Steve Young here once again.
I kidded myself that the rain was letting up and so we made
our way to New Fancy View where it was cold and the visibility poor. There was no way any raptors were getting up
in the rain – however light so with a quick look at some Bullfinches again I
abandoned and we followed Steve to Woodgreens Lake where a circular walk took
us first to a truly spectacular stained glass window hanging above the
trail. It is called the Cathedral and
had been there nearly 40 years. We were
all very impressed.
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| Cathedral |
The lake itself held eight redhead Goosanders, at least one of which was a young male. They were quite dozy but showed off that super double punk head gear. There was little else on the water bar some Canada Geese but four Greylags that flew in where the first Steve had seen in locally in three years of living in the Forest!
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| Goosanders |
Some Siskins at last sat still long enough to get the scope
on and even a Wren stayed put for the crew to raise bins too.
On again for an earlyish lunch at Dean Heritage Centre near
Soudley. I waited outside while the crew
ordered coffee and saw a Dipper briefly on the back of the pond but at least
the 22 Mandarins stayed put and displayed, called and generally abused the couple
of females present amongst them. They
are simply the most kaleidoscopic duck imaginable.
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| Mandarin |
Grey and Pied Wagtails were on the Mill roof and as usual I
had the Bulrush (No) Reedmace (Yes) discussion as well as explaining about the
caterpillars of Limnaecia phragmitella (a tiny moth) within the heads
causing the eruption of zillions of the fluffy seeds which attracts the Blue
Tits, Wrens and Chiffchaffs to try to winkle the little wigglers out.
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| Greater Reedmace |
It had stopped raining again and I felt like I had to try
New Fancy again for Goshawks but I really should not have bothered and should
have known when I was beaten! We never even saw a Buzzard all day… A single Crossbill called overhead but it was so grim we could not even find it!
And so it was on to Nags Head for the short walk. The light was grim but it was out of the cool
breeze in the woods and I did manage to find a singing Firecrest that
occasionally came down low enough to see some detail along with quite a few
Redwings, Nuthatches and Song Thrushes.
Rather frustratingly for the third year on the trot we heard a Goshawk loudly calling. This one was in the Larches but despite scanning around we could not find it perched up. There were no Wild Boar but plenty of signs and two Fallow Deer crossed the path, one intermediate and one fully melanic doe.
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| Fallow Deer |
The rain were lightly falling again so a final short stop at Cannop Ponds was in order. Despite the weather it was actually very productive with Wigeon, Tufted Ducks and Little Grebes to be found along with a few more Mandarin and a dashing Kingfisher that had a fish in its bill but it did not stop.
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| Wigeon |
We could see and
hear two Ravens on the far side and once were got round there we were able to
engage them in kronking conversations.
The bird tables were active and the usual Tits all come in along with several
Marsh Tits which showed well along with the bold Nuthatches.
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| Grey Wagtail - still my UK favourite |
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| I took this Wood Pigeon shot to show the crew the weird wobbly pupils. They are a vert underrated bird. I do like a good Pigeon |
A female Sparrowhawk
crashed through and became our last new trip bird of the day but it was the
male Grey Wagtail that came and fed under the table with the Chaffinches and
Robins that won my favourite of the day although one of the Ravens did glare at
us menacingly on the way back as if to say ‘What about me?’
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| Raven |
The rain was now
persistent and we called an end to a rather damp but successful day.
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