Evesham and District

Image: Puffin - Steve Cockbill

In April we had our weekend away to Pembrokeshire. We were treated to glorious sunshine throughout the trip. We travelled down via WWT Llanelli where the best star birds were an adult breeding plumage Mediterranean and adult little gull. We stayed overnight in Haverfordwest and the next day went on a pre-booked boat trip to Skomer Island. Here we saw many thousands of puffins, guillemots and razorbills with kittiwakes, fulmars and gannets. We also had outstanding views of a short-eared owl.

Image: Razorbills - Steve Cockbill

Some of us also went on an evening boat trip out into St Bride’s Bay where we saw a raft of many hundreds Manx shearwaters waiting for darkness before they returned to their burrows, before being treated to a glorious sunset. On the Sunday we returned to England via RSPB Newport Wetlands where we great views of many species of warblers, heard a cuckoo and spotted a peregrine perching on an old industrial building. The weekend was finished with views of a spotted flycatcher while we had our lunch before setting off for home.

Many thanks to all those attending for making this a successful, friendly and enjoyable trip. Thanks to Steve Cockbill for the photographs. This was a trip originally arranged by Geoff Bryant who recently met his untimely death. I am sure he would have enjoyed it and our thoughts go out to his family and friends.

RIP Geoff

A small party of us braved a very unfavourable forecast and made the trip to Middleton. The rain held off until, as with our November visit, we reached the only hide on the site. There was plenty of evidence of spring. We were lucky enough to hear the bittern booming and had charming views of both wren and long-tailed tit nest building. Herons and little egrets were sitting on the nests in the trees and early returning (or perhaps overwintering) warblers such as blackcap and chiffchaff were singing. Avocets, oystercatchers, redshanks and little ringed plovers were back to their breeding grounds. Also, at the last screen an early swallow flew past. However, there were still signs of winter with good numbers wigeon and teal about and we had great views of male and female goldeneye.

Unfortunately, the forecasted wet weather meant none of us took a camera so there are no photographs from this trip.

We gathered at Parkend to look for the Hawfinches. To start with the main activity was greenfinches and the occasional nuthatch. Eventually a single bird appeared, posed for a few seconds and the disappeared into a yew tree. Unfortunately, that was the last we saw of it. We then had a rather muddy walk along the brook looking for dippers, but river levels had risen after the overnight rain and there were few perching points for the birds. We did find two grey wagtails.

The weather didn’t help us at the next stop, New Fancy View raptor viewpoint. Low cloud and damp conditions meant birds of prey were not up soaring or displaying. Despite the lack over birds, much was to be enjoyed with the views across the forest.

We moved on to Cannop Ponds where we had good views at least twelve mandarin ducks amongst the trees at the water’s edge and male and female goosanders. Thanks to Geoff Bryant And Stuart Ablett for the photos.

We went looking for winter wildfowl and waders and we weren’t disappointed. There were tens of thousands of birds in and around Slimbridge and we were lucky to get great views of them in the sun. Even the WWT volunteers and staff seemed taken aback by the numbers.

The key species at this time of year are Bewick’s swans, Russian white-fronted geese, cranes, wigeon, teal, lapwing, dunlin and golden plover and we managed good views of all those, but also saw the rarer Tundra bean geese and two little stints. The highlight was probably some great views of a juvenile goshawk, often sitting in a tree, but then flying to the ground in front of us, albeit at quite a distance.