BirdForum

Decided to make a last visit to the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust Centre at Slimbridge before the end of the year and also incorporated a twitch which took me all of 2 miles out of my way to see the Cattle Egret reported near Fretherne.

Arrived at said place, walked up the road and noticed a white feature near some derelict trucks near a farm building. Put the scope on it and there it was, the Cattle Egret. It soon moved away from the buildings and into the open field where horses...

Colin

Forest of Dean on a cold and grey overcast morning with frozen ground along the tracks through the trees.

I walked to Farmers Green to see if I could find the Great Grey Shrike but had no luck. I moved on to New Fancy View watchpoint where I soon found a soaring Goshawk which came right overhead and gave close views. It gently ushered a Buzzard out of its path, caused many Wood Pigeons to rise from the trees and fly around in a bit of a panic, did the same to a small cloud of...

Colin

Ashleworth Ham Nature Reserve on another very cold and overcast day.

There is still a large coverage of ice on the flood plain but the water has dropped overnight and some of the ice is high and dry in the dead grasses. Duck numbers seems down on yesterday and there is probably less open water. There were 2 Peregrines today and a female Stonechat over the back of the reserve. A really dismal day all round.

Colin

Ashleworth Nature Reserve on a very cold and overcast day.

One of the local Peregrines was atop one of the pylons as usual this morning. Duck numbers could only be estimated as there was much disturbance as horse riders passed by on the road and the hedge to the north of the hide has recently been layered and now affords no cover to the road users. 200 Wigeon, 20 each of Pintail, Teal and Shoveler and 10 Mallard and 4 Canada Geese. One lone Common Gull also stood forlornly on the...

Colin

For the past week or so, I have been travelling and ended up on the west coast of Wales. A bit of seawatching at Strumble Head over several days including during stormy weather over the past weekend and some calm weather yesterday brought the following sightings.

I noted on several days unseasonal Manx Shearwaters and on one day about a week ago a pair of very late Arctic Skua having a beano in a large flock of feeding Kittiwakes. On the 10th, 8 Red-throated Divers passed through...

Colin