I had another opportunity to visit the Forest of Dean today, in the hope of seeing the Mandarin ducks I'd missed last time. I also thought I'd try for a better view of the hawfinches if they appeared under the yews on Crown Lane. After an early start I arrived at Crown Lane, Parkend at just before a quarter to eight in the morning. One other car was parked so I drew up next to him, slightly backward so that I did not block his view.
After a twenty minute wait I began to see some movement in the yews just above the ground and chaffinches began to 'drop' to the ground, a dozen or more. Then a larger, chunkier bird appeared... a smart male hawfinch. It hopped around feeding from whatever it could find on the ground, gradually getting nearer to the car till it was only several metres away. Then a disturbance caused all the birds to fly up to the trees where they were hidden. Another wait and the chaffinches were down once more, but this time no hawfinch appeared. A car drew up and once again the birds scattered. I didn't see the hawfinch as closely again, as the birds moved to a spot under the yews quite a bit further on, but with the arrival of some men further up the road, who proceeded to get out tripods and telescopes I knew there would no point in staying any longer. If only they would stay in their cars, they would have better chances of seeing the hawfinches!
After a quick visit to the viewpoint at New Fancy View ( I saw nothing!) I drove to Cannop Ponds which thankfully had re-opened since my last visit. Scanning around I soon found a group of mandarins sheltering under their usual bank and walked over the bridge hoping they would swim out into the open, Just then a family came along and started to throw duck food into the water and the mandarins quickly swam over and joined the throng of mallards jostling for food. This gave me an opportunity to photograph them a bit closer.
The weather had started to cloud over but as it was only midday I decided to have my lunch in the car before heading over to rspb Nagshead. I visited the Campbell hide but it was very quiet although some ladies did point out a single roosting bat at the top of the staircase which leads to the seating area! I'm afraid I don't know what type it was.
I didn't want to walk one of the trails today so strolled down to the pond and sat on a picnic benches to see if any birds were around. Then it dawned on me that it was February, a good time to see frogs spawning.. I looked down at the water and suddenly realised that there were dozens of tiny little heads poking out. A board walk jutted out slightly into the pond so I stepped on to it and crouched down to see the frogs more closely. At first they all submerged but gradually one by one appeared again, looking in my direction, amongst the masses of frogspawn that had obviously been laid over the past few days. I knelt down with my camera and took a number of shots. I was pleased with some of the results below.
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