Gloucestershire

I gave a talk in Cheltenham on Monday evening and another in Gloucester on Tuesday evening – so I’ve been largely in Gloucestershire for a while.  Here are a few rather random thoughts:

• It’s very wet out there! When I head back to Cheltenham in two and a half weeks time I’d be surprised if the going weren’t soft or tending to heavy.  This has implications.  Hurricane Fly will love it – surely?
• I drove past a large flooded area with big flocks of ducks overflying it – Walmore Common.
• As I sat in a hide at Slimbridge, with the sun shining, and thousands of waders (Golden Plover, godwits, Redshank, Dunlin, Lapwing etc) and wildfowl (mostly Wigeon, Teal and Mallard, but also Bewick’s Swans and a few White-fronted Geese) in the flooded field in front of me I thought that this was a fantastic sight. Along the bench from me, a man spoke too loudly on his mobile phone saying that it was very quiet out there and there wasn’t much around.  Birders!
• I failed to see Hawfinches in the Forest of Dean but added three species to my year list there – Mistle Thrush (no, I don’t get out much!), Nuthatch and Raven.
• An11-year old boy was birdwatching with his mum at Slimbridge (half term!) and I was glad to point out a couple of lifers for him – Black-tailed Godwit and Dunlin.  Good luck to him!
• At Slimbridge I came across David Tipling whose photographs illustrate the terrific Birds and People (reviewed here) and we had a cup of coffee and a chat about people we know and how to make a freelance living.
• A man at the talk I gave at Cheltenham thought that the RSPB is losing the plot and should be doing more campaigning and less talking about nest boxes, hedgehog homes etc. Well, at least one man thought that.
• At Nagshead RSPB reserve I passed a bench on which there was a rucksack.  I couldn’t see anyone else around.  I looked up and down the path.  I wondered whether to pick up the rucksack and take it back to the car park (although there were no staff or volunteers there to give it to), but decided to leave it be.  A few minutes later I passed a mum and her son (half term!) and asked whether they had started their walk with a rucksack.  The young man (c15?) looked shocked, smiled and then went pink – all in an instant.  His mum said ‘#### – you are a numpty!’ – which I thought was a suitable rebuke which mixed exasperation and affection appropriately.  I was glad I asked them – British reserve almost prevented me from doing so.
• I had a good cheap haircut in Tewkesbury – although not exactly Flagstaff!
• There was a Peregrine over Walmore Common – that would have been an unusual sighting the last time I was there a few decades ago.
• I paid a quick visit to Hereford – I haven’t been for four decades. There were quite a few people wandering around rather aimlessly – like me.  I think that, like me, they were enjoying revisiting the feeling of walking about in sunshine.  It felt so strange.  On the rooftops Lesser Black-backed Gulls were in full cry – it must be spring.
• The Cotswolds are very beautiful, in places, even in the rain.
• Two Cranes flew past me at Slimbridge, their wing-beats perfectly coordinated, looking beautiful – a sight one couldn’t really have imagined were it not for the Crane reintroduction programme which started a few years ago.  The evening before, a thoughtful lady had asked me whether I thought that Crane reintroductions were a good idea – I said yes, on balance, although since we decided to do them, the Cranes seemed to have got their acts together better and were spreading naturally.  But that brief, but beautiful view of two in flight, was beyond price.

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