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We are going to Spain tomorrow so I thought I would just put in a few hours at a wood about 60 miles from where I live. I have only been there once before and that was a brief visit.
First of all by nature of the bird I eventually saw I won't reveal the wood I went to as I should imagine that at this time of year I would assume that they must be resident there.
On leaving the woods car park I was immediately hit with a vocal chorus of birdsong and also confronted with many of the common birds flitting amongst the branches. Amongst these were quite a few pairs of Blackcap which were pleasing to see.
On my way around the wood an almighty racket came from deep within the wood and sounded like a couple of Jays having a go at something. Then a Tawny Owl could be heard within the same vicinity but as soon as I started to venture into the wood everything went quiet. I stood there for a while but neither Jay or Tawny Owl announced their prescence again.
Moving further into the wood I was astounded to come across a wooden tower built at the junction of about 6 paths and decided to climb it to see what was about. It is only big enough to hold two people but it had a seat and made for an excellent observation platform from which to scan the trees around it, plus the rides that branched off from beneath the tower base.
After an hour I had only seen the local birds plus heard a Cuckoo in the distance so went to climb down the ladder. As I reached the opening a raptor came out of the wood and circled about 50' above my head for a couple of minutes affording me excellent views of it. It was a Goshawk and the fact that it was within 6 miles from my house made it even more exciting.
Obviously when I am back of hols I will have to put some time into this tower to see if I can come across it again. Then again you never know but there could more than likely be a pair of them resident. Now that would be great to see a pair there.
First of all by nature of the bird I eventually saw I won't reveal the wood I went to as I should imagine that at this time of year I would assume that they must be resident there.
On leaving the woods car park I was immediately hit with a vocal chorus of birdsong and also confronted with many of the common birds flitting amongst the branches. Amongst these were quite a few pairs of Blackcap which were pleasing to see.
On my way around the wood an almighty racket came from deep within the wood and sounded like a couple of Jays having a go at something. Then a Tawny Owl could be heard within the same vicinity but as soon as I started to venture into the wood everything went quiet. I stood there for a while but neither Jay or Tawny Owl announced their prescence again.
Moving further into the wood I was astounded to come across a wooden tower built at the junction of about 6 paths and decided to climb it to see what was about. It is only big enough to hold two people but it had a seat and made for an excellent observation platform from which to scan the trees around it, plus the rides that branched off from beneath the tower base.
After an hour I had only seen the local birds plus heard a Cuckoo in the distance so went to climb down the ladder. As I reached the opening a raptor came out of the wood and circled about 50' above my head for a couple of minutes affording me excellent views of it. It was a Goshawk and the fact that it was within 6 miles from my house made it even more exciting.
Obviously when I am back of hols I will have to put some time into this tower to see if I can come across it again. Then again you never know but there could more than likely be a pair of them resident. Now that would be great to see a pair there.