It drizzled most of the day and the target species – Bearded Tit – was absent… but all in all eleven walkers had a great day out in Wales. The walk started well with House Sparrow, Cetti’s Warbler and Chiffchaff in the scrub along the lane to the visitor centre. The feeders there were alive with Greenfinch and below the…
Month: May 2013
Trip report: RSPB Otmoor (26 May 2013)
Seventeen members met in this beautiful Oxfordshire reserve on a sunny, warm morning. The walk started brilliantly in the car park with a Cuckoo calling, the distant purring of a Turtle Dove and the song of Willow Warblers, Blackcaps and a Garden Warbler. The reserve is a mosaic of wet meadows, and reed bed together with some hedges and mature…
Trip report: Southstoke (21 May 2013)
The ‘Save Our Pub’ sign made a good perch for a Blackbird; let’s hope it works as well for the pub! Rain had fallen; the grey skies were thinning so we eleven set out with light hearts. House Sparrow, Robin, and Woodpigeon our sightings before a plunge down into Horsecombe Vale where the ‘squeaky wheel’ sound of Goldcrest mixed with…
Trip report: Suffolk Weekend (17 – 19 May 2013)
There were eight of us on this venture to Suffolk. We started out from Jane’s house in Portishead in misty weather and the day continued cool and overcast but our spirits were lifted with excellent views of three Stone Curlews from the hide at Weeting Heath. One male and female were clearly a pair. The heath was busy with rabbits,…
Trip report: Inglestone Common BBQ (14 May 2013)
Due to the weather the annual BBQ was cancelled. Many thanks to Hazel and John for the invitation to invade their cottage garden. Good news – three Nightingales are singing in Lower Woods, the same number as last year.
Trip report: Lower Woods Nature Reserve (10 May 2013)
Before we started our evening walk through Lower Woods there was a Treecreeper calling at the car park. The woods resounded with birdsong, made particularly difficult to identify by the Song Thrushes, which could be heard at all points on our walk. By the stream we saw a Spotted Flycatcher. This is the first time I have spent more time…
Trip report: Shapwick Heath (7 May 2013)
26 members met at Natural England’s Shapwick Heath car park on the first hot day of the year. In the morning we walked towards Noah’s Lake but the way was barred as the bridge to Meare Hide had been removed for maintenance and the main path closed just before the lake. After a picnic lunch in the car park we…
Trip report: Blaise Woods (4 May 2013)
To help with birdsong recognition, Judy was persuaded by Alison to lead this meeting ,but in fact the best birder in the group was Luca, a young Italian who had picked up the meeting from our website -as had Lucile, a young French girl. With Brenda and Stephen, who also travelled by bus, we six made up the entire party.…