Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Parkend (again!)

On Easter Monday, Gill wanted a quiet day sorting "stuff" at home, and sent me packing to the Forest of Dean.
An early arrival at Parkend Church soon revealed 3 Hawfinches, but they were flighty. A bizarre sight was a pair of Mandarins (look carefully at the picture!)
flying from tree to tree, presumably looking for nest sites.
A Treecreeper paused to preen itself nearby.
A Goshawk drifted over, but there was no sign of the Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers that had recently been reported. I talked to a local who had spent 6 hours on the Sunday waiting in vain for them. This news persuaded me to try New Fancy View, but not for the usual reason.....
I joined a reasonable throng at the viewpoint, and soon was looking down into the conifers below us, at a pair of Bramblings, the male in summer plumage, very nice!
Job done, and back to Parkend briefly, where nothing new was seen.
A steam loco was photographed in Lydney, on the Dean Forest Railway, but I'll stick to birds today....Oh all right then, here you are:
A quick visit to Goldcliff on my way home produced 1+ summer plumage Bar Tailed Godwit amongst it's more common cousins, a Greenshank, and as I walked back to the car, an immature male Marsh Harrier drifted east, quite low down. Time to go home!

2 comments:

Wayne said...

I looked very carefully at Tim's "Where's Willy" puzzle and can only find a drake. Where's the duck?

Tim Hall said...

Not there!