Forest of Dean Trip

Out of focus Tree Pipit

Today we set off mid afternoon for our annual trip to the Forest of Dean to view Nightjars and Woodcock.

Prior to arriving to the usual traditional site for both the above species, we took trips to Cannop Ponds and Nagshead.  Cannop Ponds had Mandarin with chicks and Grey Wagtail with fledglings.  In fact, the overgrown pathway along the stream had fledglings galore, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Dipper and Redstart.

Nagshead was hard work with nothing visibility showing for long periods of time.  After getting a crick in the neck I managed a fleeting but highly unsatisfactory sighting of a Pied Flycatcher along with many sightings of Nuthatch and fledglings and Treecreepers.

Probably the worst photo of a Woodcock ever

We arrived at the site for Nightjar around 9:00pm and were immediately entertained by a Chiff Chaff closely followed by a Tree Pipit in a dead tree.  After a long wait, the Woodcock started to fly past, sometimes two at a time and then just after 10:00pm the Nightjars started to churr.  I chanced upon two as they performed wing claps at the far side of the clearing and someone else then saw them briefly alight on a  dead tree close by only then to fly out of sight.  After waiting about half an hour they had restarted to churr but by then it was too dark to view them.

That was probably one of the hardest days birding I have had for a long while, where we really had to work hard to see our target species and even then not all of us did.