Skip to main content

Late Autumn in the Forest of Dean

Yesterday I spent 5 hours starting at a puddle, as you do,  in the Forest of Dean hoping to photograph Crossbills. The Crossbills, however, had other ideas so here are a few consolation pictures of the Nuthatches and Crossbills.



   








Comments

  1. MothNovember 27, 2022 at 5:00 AM

    Lovely! Shae about the uncooperative crossbills, but nuthatches are gorgeous birds aren't they? (Btw, you've accidentally typed 'crossbills' again instead of coal tits.) x

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A UK first! – a Grey-headed Lapwing in Northumberland

     We were out walking our dogs yesterday morning when I said to my every suffering wife that May was a top month for rarities. We had just got home and I was making coffee when I picked up on our twitching WhatsApp group that a Grey-headed Lapwing had been found near the Scottish border in Northumberland! This would be the first UK record of this Asian Lapwing and only the 4 th  in the whole of the western  palearctic.    So after a very quick coffee I was in the car and off on the 285 mile trip to Newton-by-the-Sea. It was a mainly boring motorway drive punctuated by a few nervous stops to make sure the bird was still there – a passing raptor could be enough to spook it and make it depart!   The excellent “twitching the UK group” was providing good updates on the traffic conditions, parking and the bird on route and I arrived at 16:00 and found a space to park amongst the many cars. Walking towards the birds location is always notable for the relaxed birders chatting on route back
1 comment
Read more

A Baikal Teal revisits RSPB Greylake

  I’ve seen a couple of Baikal Teals in the UK, most recently 2 years ago at RSPB Greylake on the Somerset levels. It sits in that well populated category on my UK list that I’ve mentioned many times in blogs before, i.e. seen but badly!   Now a little surprisingly given its two year absence, what is presumably the returning  adult drake was re-found at Greylake yesterday.  So, with at least some sun forecast to break the seemingly endlessly monotonous  dull December days today, off I went on the 90 minute journey down the M5 to see if I could get some better views.    While checking previous Baikal Teal records I discovered that the Greylake bird from two years ago was the only UK bird I have seen that has been accepted as wild by the great powers to be providing further incentive to visit. A short walk from an almost full car park took me to the same hide overlooking a large expanse of water that I last visited two years ago. The small open hide was quite busy but with enough space t
1 comment
Read more

Albert the Albatross

  What is more improbable -   a)     England’ football team    beating Germany in the knockout stages of a major competition   b)     Seeing an Albatross in England   Actually the answer is a) because it has not happened since 1966 rather than b) as Albert the Albatross, as he is affectionally known, has made a number of passing visits to the UK since 1967!   On Monday evening reports started to emerge of Albert associating with the Gannet colony at RSPB Bempton Cliffs in Yorkshire, almost one year after his    last brief visit to the same site. During the intervening period there have been a number of sightings of Albert across Europe, particularly from the Baltic Sea where he appears to have spent much of the last 12 months. In fact there were reports that he had been attacked and killed in the area by two eagles.    Reports of his death were clearly greatly exaggerated!   The Black-browed Albatross is circumpolar in the southern oceans but very rarely seen above the equator. If I t
2 comments
Read more