My Forest of Dean Adventure!

March 13th 

Our Dorset holiday may have been over on Thursday, but the holiday was to continue further north into the Forest of Dean. Just like waiting for a bus, two arrive one after the other. I was to join a Naturetrek group for the weekend and tour the forest for wild boar and other fantastic wildlife that can be found there.

There was some time to kill before I had to meet up the group later that Friday evening though. So, Dad suggested we visit Slimbridge. This was our third visit to Slimbridge and one we spent mainly looking at their wildfowl collection rather than visit their hides.

When we finally arrived at the hotel at the Forest of Dean where my Naturetrek holiday was based, my parents dropped me off and made their way to Cheltenham to see my younger brother. As for me, I met the members that were also in my group and our tour guide and after our evening meal, we were already heading out for our first outing. It was now after dark and we were driving around the forest in a minibus looking for wild boar. I was placed in the front passenger seat and was elected as searchlight operator. In other words, I was given a large torch and was told to point it outside the window and scan for wildlife amongst the trees close to the road as we drove by. I was pretty good at it as I managed to light up many fallow deer, a fox and, best of all, a really large boar! A shame that it didn't hang around for very long and that it was raining.

March 14th

I woke up early on my first morning with the group as we set off at 6:45am for a couple of short walks around Parkland Green and Church. We had plenty of redwings, a treecreeper, a great spotted woodpecker, as well as the other more common woodland birds. But the real stars were hawfinches. These normally shy finches elsewhere turned out to be more common and approachable in the Forest of Dean. Throughout the weekend, we must have seen over 40+ birds. Back at the hotel, we watched two male Mandarin ducks land onto a dead tree with one female adjacent to some of the group members' rooms.

Great Grey Shrike

After breakfast and another short walk around the hotel grounds, our leader took us to a site called Crabtree Hill in the chance of finding an overwintering great grey shrike. It was a muddy slog to get to the hill accompanied with drizzling rain, but once we got there, it brightened up and, after a bit of a wait, the shrike eventually appeared. It was distant to begin with, but thankfully, it was kind enough to give us much closer views. At one point, it had a lizard in its bill, and before we had the chance to witness why it gets the nickname of 'butcherbird' by impaling it on a thorn, it ended up swallowing it whole! This was my first ever encounter with a great grey shrike and it certainly made it quite a memorable one. We also saw ravens, crossbills and siskins here.

The viewpoint of New Fancy was up next and it certainly was a fancy viewing platform with a fancy view! This was also a very popular spot as several other people were here too, most looking for the same thing we were; goshawks! With so many eyes scanning the forest landscape, it wasn't too long until we saw some, albeit incredibly distant. We had better, closer views of crossbills and bullfinches that really challenged outshining the goshawks.

Wild Boar

After New Fancy, we were making our way to a pub for lunch. However, we got a bit distracted along the way as we happened upon a small group of wild boar by the roadside, which included one female with 5 stripy little piglets! We turned around and pulled over for a better look. What a lucky encounter this was!

There were a few other walks and short visits, including one very long and exhausting walk at Brierley, after lunch. We didn't really add too much that I hadn't seen before, except for redpoll, another goshawk, a grey wagtail and a few more Mandarin ducks. By the end of the day, I was extremely tired and was in a lot of pain as my body ached, especially my back and feet. But, I knew I still had one more day of this to endure.

March 15th

The morning of my final day was a complete washout! I woke up to join in on the early morning walk along a river at 7am in the search for dippers. We were successful, but the weather was awful. However, it got even worse after breakfast when we visited RSPB Nagshead. This reserve of ancient woodland was perhaps the lowest point of the trip. It was absolutely throwing it down with rain and the path was just thick, slippery mud and there was no way of avoiding it. There was nothing to see and I was getting soaked to the bone. I almost cried inside. I really wanted to go home.

Crossbill

Most of us decided to return to the hotel, while a few went off for a couple more short walks in the rain. I decided to give the walks a miss. Amazingly though, after lunch, the sun came out and the rain ceased pouring. We were back on the road! It turned out to be quite a pleasant afternoon as we stopped at a field where two little owls lived in an oak tree, then to the viewpoint at Symonds Yat Rock, where we saw three peregrines (two perched on trees, while a third flying high like a dot in the sky), two goosanders and some ravens. Finally, we returned to New Fancy and saw the goshawks and crossbills there again before the rain suddenly returned. And so my holiday came to an end. It was long, it was exhausting and tested my patience at times, but it sure was memorable filled with great wildlife encounters. If only it wasn't so muddy and wet, but then again, it wouldn't be a wild British holiday without it.