Forest of Rain (Dean)

Yesterday, myself and the Capt decided to pay our annual visit to the Forest of Dean to view Nightjar and Woodcock.  The weather forecast seemed almost favourable, so we thought we would risk the journey and therefore made our way down there early afternoon.

After making good time, we arrived in the area at about 17:00pm and made some stops at Yew Tree Brake Cemetery, Woorgreen Lake and the Speech House Arboretum to see if we could find any of their specialist birds, which include Firecrest, Redstart, Hawfinch and Crossbill.  Unfortunately, during the journey down, the heavens had opened and the forest seemed very quiet indeed except for commoner species, including Jay, Treecreeper, Nuthatch and a mother Wren scolding us and calling in her fledglings which were having fun in the bracken (despite it being sopping wet).  We then made our way over to Cannop Ponds for the Capt to add Mandarin to her year list, at which point the heavens opened again and the rain continued solid for about an hour.  The next visit was to Nagshead RSPB, which again was extremely quiet except for (presumably) the warden, playing music at top blast in his open jeep (thanks for music....not!).

By this time, we were both fairly damp and despondent and made our way dejectedly to our last point of call, Boys Grave.  This year, we had come prepared and dowsed ourselves from head to foot in midge repellent, then walked the short distance to the usual viewing point.  A short while later, we were joined by Mike-PCC and his wife, who are holidaying in the area.  Seeing Mike-PCC lightened our moods and it was not long before we spotted our first of many Woodcock flypasts.  At about 21:20pm, the Nightjar started churring and continued to do so for about 30 minutes.  During this time we were fortunate enough to see scope views of the bird as it churred away on top of a dead tree.  The journey home also provided roadside views of Tawny Owls on three occasions.