Saturday 19th March 2025 - RSPB Nagshead.

 

On Saturday Tom, David and myself (Tony) had arranged to visit Nagshead and do a recce for an upcoming Bath RSPB fieldtrip that Tom is leading. As the weather forecast looked like the rain would pass through by mid-morning we delayed our start time until 9.30 and Tom picked us both up at David's for the drive to the Forest Of Dean. We had light rain all the way and also as we arrived at Nagshead but after chatting to the staff at the reception area the rain stopped, and the rest of the day was dry but cloudy. The 1^st sighting of the day was a Pied Wagtail as we drove to the car park and after our chat with the volunteers we walked to the top pond finding a Goldcrest on the way. The pond only held a single male Mallard, we then set off towards the bottom hide, a Chiffchaff sang from a tree and took a while to find, but a Robin was easier to locate. David spotted 2 flyover Stock Doves, and a Blackbird was on the top of a bush. Tom saw some movement at the base of a tree where a Song Thrush appeared from behind the trunk. Walking on towards the hide we saw movement to our left and on searching through the binoculars I found a Male Pied Flycatcher and between us we found 1 male and 2 females. Two other birders came up from the hide and we were able to point out where the flycatchers were, this was the 1^st of our target species. A few paces down the path I spotted a bird that seemed to be searching a broken tree limb, but it was silhouetted and hard to identify until the red tail gave it away as a Redstart, in the end we found a second a female, our second target species. From the hide the only bird we spotted was a Woodpigeon, so we made our way back to the carpark finding a Goldfinch in the top of a tree. From the car park we made our way to the Campbell hide here we spotted our 1^st Blackcap although we had heard many during the morning. Nothing more was seen so we made our way back towards the carpark and sat on the picnic tables by the top pond for lunch. Lunch over we decided to walk the short trail a male Chaffinch was on the ground in front of us and a Wren was picking moss from a fallen tree branch, we then diverted from the main path down towards Parkend but the birdsong seemed to stop so we did an about turn and just before we got back to the main trail I spotted 2 small birds that seemed to be fighting and as I got the binoculars on them I realised we had found   Fircrest’s our 3^rd target species. Back at the trail we took the long trail, but this proved very fruitless with just a Buzzard added to the days list. As we approached the end of the walk a bird moved in a tree and David spotted a Treecreeper and as we watched it a Nuthatch flew in. This was the final bird seen at Nagshead, but I must point out that we did find lots of beetles during the walk and Obsidentify told me they were all Anoplotrupes Stercorosus  or Woodland Dor Beetle. 

Woodland Dor Beetle - Nagshead 
(Bath Birdwatcher)

This didn’t end our new sightings for the day as on our return trip we spotted 2 Swallows only the second time I have seen them this year, and a few Herring Gulls. We also saw Collared Doves on our trip over in the morning.