My daughter was working in London and so needed an early drop-off at the train station - I was at my desk by 6.20am as I had a bunch of stuff I wanted to get done before I delivered a course session later that morning. Just before I started, I had a message from Kevin Heath to say that the red-footed falcon at Woolhampton GP had been reported again and that he planned to go down after lunch - there was a thought. I delivered my lecture, finishing at 1.30pm with questions to follow - it didn't take too long and I decided to finish for the day and head for Woolhampton; Kev said he was going to get on the road with his wife by 2.00pm and would meet me there.
I reached Woolhampton with only a slight delay due to heavy traffic only to find that I was in a queue to get across the railway level crossing - after a few minutes the gates opened and I joined another queue to pass over the Woolhampton Swingbridge – across the Kennet and Avon canal. This is an improved river navigation rather than a true canal and consists of sections of the natural riverbed of the River Kennet alternating with artificially created lock cuts and locks. Woolhampton Lock is at the downstream end of an artificial lock cut, and the river and lock cut re-join at the foot of the lock.
Just over the swingbridge I pulled into The Rowbarge pub car park and popped in to use their facilities - it appeared to be a really nice pub/restaurant and looked to be very popular. As I returned to my car, Kevin and Karen arrived and followed suit but also booked a table for dinner. It wasn't long before we were booted and off - Kev said that Adrian Sparrowhawk was already here, and we followed his instructions on where to go - he had been here for a while and had seen the bird.
It was not far to the water’s edge and soon we could see a small group of people peering through scopes or taking photos - we decided we were probably in the right place. It took only seconds to spot the bird perched high in a dead tree out on a point. I took a few record shots just to be sure I had something and then looked through Kev's scope at the bird perched once again.
The remainder of the afternoon was spent watching the falcon drop from its perch and fly a short circuit over the water and back into the tree; each circuit could only have lasted about 20s but very occasionally a little longer. These sorties were almost always distant, and photography wasn't likely to result in anything spectacular, although once in a while the bird would get just that little bit closer.
Overhead we had numbers of swifts, two hobby and a flyby oystercatcher that dropped into the field behind - joining a herd of snorting cows. Terns could also be seen in the distance, but none that looked to be anything other than common.
At one point the red-footed falcon swooped forwards and twisted, all while I was snapping - I quite like the photo that resulted as it looks as if the bird is praying - I used a caption of "'Preying' before dinner". Ok not very clever but I liked it.
Eventually it approached time for Kev and Karen's dinner and as we got back to the pub Adrian decided to join them - I had planned to get home and pick my daughter up from the train and so left them to it.
Saturday morning arrived, and I met with Kev to try and add wood warbler to the year list - we'd dipped on the wood warbler when we visited the Wyre Forest a few weeks ago. We stopped on the way for breakfast at a McDonalds and were arriving at the forest car park by 6.40am - not 200m along we could see a bird moving around and doing a very good impression of a tree pipit. I took a photo and it became obvious that it was not an impression – it was indeed a tree pipit.
We stopped along the main path and scanned around the tree cover finding a pair of pied flycatchers - the female disappeared into a box leaving the male to do what it says on the tin - the male occasionally popping into the box with its catch and presumably provisioning the female as it is likely still a little early for chicks.
I turned around and found another Oxfordshire birder following behind - it was Moth Clark. He joined us and we chatted as we walked along, occasionally pausing and listening for interesting songs and calls. He had also been for the red-footed falcon the day before but mid- to late-morning; he had some great photos. Kev alerted us to a wood warbler above our head and we stopped to listen and watch. We could see the bird, but it was almost impossible to get a photo as it worked through the trees, rapidly. We could follow it in our bins and could clearly identify it as our target bird. All too soon it departed and couldn't be relocated. Numbers of nuthatches fed in the treetops in a slightly different method to those usually encountered.
We reluctantly moved on and spotted some more pied flycatchers, almost all male and predominantly in the usual hollow. Here Moth made a retreat to see if he could catch up with the showy pair back up the track and then return back to this hollow - he did want a decent photo of a pied fly.
We on the other hand went in search of more wood warblers - hopefully one that might show a bit. We reached Dowles Brook and found a dipper just as it decided to exit, stage right. Rather than follow it down we turned left and back up the brook in the direction of calling jays. Kev picked out a warbler and as we watched it, it transformed into a female common redstart. We walked on a little further but couldn't find anything else of note. Another birder came the other way and asked if we'd seen any redstart and we all returned to the spot - it turned out to be Terry Nicklin, someone I've seen on Twitter posting local updates. This time both the male and female redstarts showed, although the female showed better before entering its nest hole while the male stayed tantalising out of reach.
We chatted for a short while and found out that the tree that we were watching was the same one used the year before - possibly/likely the same pair? We then made our way along the brook and came across grey wagtail feeding beside a juvenile dipper. We watched the dipper feed and then relocate under a tree trunk to preen - such a great watch.
We stopped for a coffee from our flasks at the Outdoor Centre where Kev had a flyover kingfisher. Of course, I was taking photos of grey wagtails under the trees and missed it - typical. We climbed back up from the brook and past Coopers Mill finding a rather vocal male flying around the trees, at eye level. Beautiful views.
We reached the hollow again and came across Moth who had been watching various pied flycatchers working the area - one in particular had shown well and perched atop a stick – I can't wait to see the photos. As we stood, we could hear wood warblers calling and were sure we could see two in the treetops; we climbed back up to the main path and located the birds. Kev gave a running commentary as Moth and I tried to keep one of the birds in our viewfinder - this helped tremendously as the bird was moving at speed. It was difficult but fortunately I was on the bird when it paused for a short preen before moving on again - an opportunity to rattle off a few photos, almost all in the same spot or one hop away. Yes.
Moth said his goodbyes as he had just realised the time and it wasn't long before we did the same.
We heard and then saw a garden warbler as it shrunk back into the scrub - it did the decent thing and popped out briefly before dropping back out of view. Willow warbler and chiffchaff called, and more wood warblers could be heard but not seen.
This place is special. It won't be too long before we come back.
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