It's usually at this time of year when I make a trip to the Forest of Dean to see some of the summer visitors to the woodland at rspb Nagshead. It's a bit early for spotted flycatchers but I hoped to see pied flycatchers and maybe a redstart when I drove over to the rspb reserve early this morning. At 7.45 am., I was the first car in the car park which did actually surprise me but at least I would have the best choice of seats in the Lower hide! It was quite chilly, only 4 degrees when I arrived although their was some hazy sunshine.
In the Lower hide , which is reached by a walk through some conifer woodland, I could hear lots of birdsong, and great tits and blue tits were busy chasing each other through the trees. A stock dove stopped for a while at the top of a dead tree, and I had a glimpse of a grey wagtail flying through the woodland, which actually was the first I'd seen this year.
After an hour or so I eventually saw what I was looking for: a male pied flycatcher appeared amongst some distant holly. It flew to a nearby branch and back a couple of times before disappearing from view. Shortly after, I noticed the female fly into a small tree on an island in the pond. She flew out and back several times, presumably after insects but always perched the other side of a leafy branch. Then she, too flew off.
Suddenly I saw a splash of red in a small tree growing at the edge of the pond - a male redstart had made an appearance. lt perched for a while, then flew down to a small area of wooden boardwalk before flying off into the woods again.
The pied flycatchers came back to their original area and flittered about as before but never came any nearer to the hide. On previous visits I have watched them right outside the hide but not today.
Meanwhile some more visitors came into the hide; they had seen some flycatchers at the other hide so I decided to leave my current position and go and check out that hide.
There were a couple of people already there, who informed me they'd seen some pied flycatchers as well as siskin, nuthatch, and blackcaps. In fact as I sat down, I could see one of the flycatchers was investigating a nest box but then flew off. It seemed quite a wait before we saw anything else of interest, but eventually we had some nice views of a tree creeper, a song thrush having a bath as well as siskin, goldcrest and a male blackcap.
Both male and female pied flycatcher appeared from time to time, the male was not particularly obliging for photos, but the female perched on a small log by the pond before having a drink.
Having seen what I'd come for, I decided to leave, hoping to return in a month or so to look for spotted flycatchers. I stopped for my picnic lunch at New Fancy Viewpoint, but although I climbed up to the viewing area, there was little to see so I returned home.
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