A SUNNY AFTERNOON BY THE RIVER FROME

 

With cold weather forecast on Monday, I decided to make the most of a sunny afternoon to take a gentle stroll by the  River Frome, five minutes away from Stroud town centre. It's a place I visit once a year as there is a very good chance of seeing a dipper or two along the stretch of river which forms the Frome banks nature reserve. Occasionally a grey wagtail is present and there are also reports of kingfishers although I've never seen one there myself. 

After parking in the pay and display car park, I crossed over the road and took the path to the canal towpath  which I followed for a short distance until it met the footpath which followed the river bank.

Sheltered between two steep banks and with the sun shining through the leaves and branches above me, the afternoon felt very pleasant. It was a peaceful walk alongside the fast flowing stream; only a few other walkers and a couple of people who were picnicking on the table provided half way along. 

I walked the relatively short length of the reserve without seeing any water birds, but I did have a good view of a couple of jays. However, returning along the same path, something caught my eye at the edge of the bank across the other side of the water.  It was somewhat of a surprise to find it was a male mandarin duck lurking in the shadows! I watched it for a while, wondering what it was doing there and  thinking at least there was something to record following my visit as this would be a first for the year. Suddenly there was a bit of splashing a few metres away and out into the open sailed a female mandarin!! The colourful drake  swam quickly towards her and they began to mate. |Afterwards I enjoyed watching them as they swam to and fro  and fed under the overhanging banks and vegetation.

I continued  to make my way slowly back to where I had begun my riverside walk, looking out for movements of a dipper as I went.  Nearing the start and about to give up,  I  suddenly noticed a patch of white against some rocks and a closer inspection revealed a motionless shape of a dipper.  If appeared to be asleep, standing on one leg,  and every so often it would blink its eyes.  Pleased to have found  a dipper after all, I decided to wait until it roused, which it did eventually, and after a bit of preening and some bobbing up and down it flew upstream. I walked back to the area where I thought it had stopped but  it had disappeared from view. Although I looked both up and downstream, I still couldn't see it so decided to finish my visit there as I was close to the start  of the path anyway. 

        I crossed the bridge before descending down to the towpath beside the cana

jay

mandarin (m)

mandarin pair

footpath alongside the River Frome

Spot the dipper!

sleeping dipper

A DAPPER DUCK

 

After a couple of fine, warm days, this morning started rather cloudy and a good bit cooler than recently. It was the first day of my Easter break so I decided to have a day out before the Bank Holiday weekend started and more people were about. I chose to go to some birding places I'd not visited before but first I stopped off at another site to locate a rare duck. 

Before Christmas I had two failed attempts at finding a pair of ring necked ducks at Radley lakes near Abingdon. They were initially very mobile and sometimes hard to find, but more recently they have settled on a small water filled  pit, a couple of hundred yards down a gravel path away from the main Thrupp lake.  I therefore knew exactly where I was making for when I arrived and today they were easy to spot amongst the few tufted ducks.  They are similar  to tufted ducks but with slight variation in colouring and a distinct bill pattern. In fact the male appears a very smart duck indeed. Although I was quickly able to spot the male duck, it decided to go to sleep before I had a chance to get my camera out and remained so for a little while. A noisy jay flew across the lake and the duck stirred but not for long enough to get  a photo. I knew I would have to wait a bit longer. Eventually, a bit of commotion amongst some coots set all the ducks in a bit of a panic so I was able to get a couple of photos while it looked up and swam around. 

lake where the ring necked ducks were

My next stop was at Aston Tirrold where I planned to park  before taking a walk to Lollingdon Hill, a popular birdwatching area. The hill itself, is not particularly high and is privately owned but there is access to a path which circles the hill. 

From reading a blog ahead of my visit, I learned that opposite the Recreation ground where the walk starts, lives a certain British tennis star, Tim Henman. His house was easy to view form the  track and I could make out a grass tennis court through the hedge!  I followed the bridlepath alongside some fields for a mile or so, noticing the blackthorn beginning to blossom along the path. Chiffchaffs could be heard, and I think I also heard the song of a blackcap though couldn't locate it. 

I eventually came across what seemed to be a path to the hill and asked some approaching walkers if that was the right place. On finding it was the right track, I followed them up an incline to the south side of the hill which had some extensive views. Here they turned off, but told me that the path would  take me round the circumference  of the hill and back to where I met them. As I turned away from them I spotted my first wheatear of the year at the edge of the field. I just had time for a quick photo before it flew off  further into the field where it was hard to spot. The sun had come out at this point, and I decided to stop for my lunch which I'd brought with me. It had become warmer too and it was a pleasant walk around the rest of the hill, though I didn't see any more birds of note.

Tim Henman's house

Start of walk, with Tim Henman's house on the left behind the wall

approach to the hill

Wheatear (f)

My last visit of the day was to Cholsey Marsh, ten minutes away, which is a Wildlife Trust owned nature reserve alongside the river Thames. You can park right up close to the edge of the river, provided there is room, and today there were only a couple of cars. Judging by a sign on the gate, it had been rather busier during lockdown.  It certainly would be a lovely spot for a walk on a summer's day. I wanted to find where this reserve was, as there is a particular dragonfly I'd like to look for in May which is found here.  I didn't walk that far along the Thames today but  I did spot a kingfisher and also a Red Kite which was calling from its perch in a tree. 

Alongside the River Thames

A COUPLE OF GARDEN VISITORS

 

During the past couple of weeks there have been some less common visitors to my garden feeding station. 

A great spotted woodpecker was a pleasing sight, although seen from time to time, these are not exactly regular so it is always nice to see them. This particular individual spent some time feeding from the sunflower hearts before trying out the suet block feeder. 

A week later  a glance out of the window gave me a surprise when I noticed a smart male pheasant pecking about under the feeders. It made a couple of tours of the garden amongst the spring daffodils before returning to the feeders and the flying up onto the roof of the neighbour's shed and then down into their garden - I hope they enjoyed watching it as much as I did! 

RIVER THAMES AT CASTLE EATON

 

The current lockdown has meant that so far this year I've not been able to see any of our winter visiting swans population; usually visits to to Slimbridge in January will give me Bewick swans and a visit to East Anglia will provide Whooper swans. I therefore decided to follow up reports of a few whooper swans feeding with a flock of mute swans in  a field near Castle Eaton and the river Thames. 

I had a close look at my OS map and from my knowledge of the area worked out where I might be able to park, close to an entry to the Thames path. There was one other car in the layby I chose, located near  a  road bridge over the Thames and I could see the owner was fishing off the bank. It's not an area I've really walked before, despite its close proximity to home. 

I followed the Thames Path signs and crossed a couple of fields and wooden bridges till I was able to see in the distance some white objects in the fields. As I got closer, I could make out the swan flock, but not the beaks clearly as some were quite distance from the path. I therefore turned off to follow a hedge line which would run past the field in which the swans were feeding. Through the gap in the hedge I eventually made out just one Whooper swan amongst good numbers of mutes. Turning back to the main path, I noticed a little egret fly in and land in the vegetation next to the river. l couldn't see it from where I stood so walked as silently as I could until I got a glimpse of its white head. As expected, it was wary of my movement and immediately flew off but it had just given me an extra year tick. 

Being overcast and quite cold, I returned to my car the way I had come, with the thought that I would like to do this walk on a spring or summer day.

River Thames

River Thames

mute swans in the field

whooper swan

s

a concealed little egret

off it went!

MORE EARLY BUTTERFLIES

 

It was another fine spring day today; after an early frost, the sky was clear and the temperature gradually rose to about 10 or 11 degrees.

I headed over to my daughter's house late morning with a view to spending a relaxing few hours in the garden with her and her daughter. The garden is a real haven for butterflies; in the summer  months there seem to be butterflies constantly around the flowers and plants, flying to and fro as they look for nectar. In the past they have seen silver washed fritillaries and only last year we spotted purple hairstreaks in the oak tree at the bottom of the garden.

Today, the first butterfly I saw was  a Red Admiral. It occasionally flew over the fence to next door but then returned shortly afterwards to the same plant. A Brimstone appeared a little while later, but unlike yesterday, it didn't settle and I thought that they might be the only butterflies I would see today.  However, not long afterwards another butterfly flew across the garden and settled  for several minutes  on a nearby bush - a Peacock. I went over to photograph it  but as I was doing so, I heard my son-in-law  say that he could see yet another butterfly on the neighbouring shrub,  which turned out to be a Comma!  Four species in one garden within an hour or two, was a good count I thought; and  now just a small tortoiseshell to see to complete the quota of hibernating butterflies. I don't think I saw any of these till at least the end of March last year. 

Red Admiral

Red Admiral

Peacock

Comma

SPRING IS SPRUNG!

 

In contrast to my previous entry, today was a beautiful spring day and I couldn't wait to get out for an afternoon walk, as it felt just the sort of day I might find my first Brimstone butterfly of the year. My car temperature only registered 7 degrees but it felt warmer. I initially decided walking boots might be sufficient but on entering the first field at Pentylands  Country Park (just down the road in Highworth) it quickly became apparent that the ground was still waterlogged so I popped back to my car and got my wellies out again.

I walked along the road for a bit before entering at the second gate and it wasn't long before I noticed a Brimstone butterfly flying along the hedgerow! For me, that's a sign that Spring is here. I watched it as it flew over a gate and then settled on some ivy, which surprised me as I usually find the  male Brimstones are constantly on the move as they look for a mate.  I couldn't get that close,  but nevertheless I was pleased to see my first butterfly of this year, although it was the only one I saw!