Roger and I went to Seven
Springs at Cannock Chase to hopefully see Wood Warbler.
When we arrived in the car
park at 08:50 it was rather quiet with very little song. As we walked a number of the paths leading
from the car park we heard Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler, and Blackcap but no Wood
Warbler. As we walked back from the heath
area I thought I heard a brief snatch of song and as we approached closer I
thought I heard it again. We scrambled
up the bank to the top footpath and within a few minutes in sang again and we
had pretty good views before it moved off and disappeared. Roger then heard what he thought was a bird
calling and we located a Wood Warbler low down in a tree. It continued calling and eventually dropped
into the bracken and after moving around in the bracken for a short time
disappeared into it. We moved along the
path, which took us closer to where the bird had gone, but there was no sign
and we assumed it had probably gone on a nest.
Roger then picked up a Spotted Flycatcher down the bottom of the hill
and we watched this for a few minutes before it also disappeared. We then explored two of the racks a little
further and heard Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and Blackcap again, seeing both a
Willow Warbler and Blackcap. We and also
heard a Raven and Goldcrest but failed to see either of them. As both of these tracks were rather quiet we
decided to move off to Swallow Moss.
Fomes fomentarius (Tinder Fungus)
On arrival at Swallow Moss it
felt quite cool in the breeze and there were few birds, except for Meadow
Pipits. Roger did find a single Red
Grouse and we also saw two Cuckoos and heard a third. Six Buzzards, a Kestrel and two Curlew were
seen as we drove between Swallow Moss and Royal Cottage.
On arrival we checked the
river from the bridge leading to the mill and had a superb male Grey Wagtail,
which unfortunately flew off downstream and was not seen again. From the bridge we retraced our steps back
towards the car as we intended to walk up stream along the road. As we turned onto the road a duck flew down
the road and appeared to come down out of sight but quite close to the
car. I had already said to Roger that I
thought it was a Mandarin and so we walked slowly towards the car to find a
female Mandarin feeding in a roadside pool.
It didn’t appear too concerned about us and remained several minutes
before flying off back to the river. A
Blackcap and Garden Warbler could be heard singing but scans for a Dipper as we
walked up the road proved unsuccessful.
I saw a bird appear to fly downstream before it turned and landing in a
bush on the far side. I raised by bins
to find a nice male Redstart but before Roger got on it, it flew again and we
were unable to re-find it. We continuing
walking upstream until we reached an area that is open on both sides where we
found a few Swifts feeding above the valley and Roger located a Spotted
Flycatcher.
The valley as we reached the clearing
Mountain Pansy
After spending some time
scanning the valley and seeing a Buzzard but not a lot else we started to walk
back. We stopped in the area where I had
seen the Redstart and thought we might have heard one calling back in the
direction we had just come. We walked
back a few yards and found the male, which was now calling constantly and we
saw it enter a nest hole. Roger felt
that there was a second bird that went into the hole but we didn’t see again
and the male made several visits with food.
We continued to walk back and stopped to look over a bridge where a
small tributary flowed into the river.
From here we had a Long-tailed Tit, Coal Tit and a Chiffchaff and just a
few yards further Roger found a Dipper and we had nice views as a brood of
Mallard appeared to drive it up stream.
On reaching the car we had a drink before setting off for home. Before we reached the A515 to Ashbourne we
had a male and a female Redstart at two different locations.
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