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Well the weather has turned cold and we have now left the viewpoint for another year. If you fancy popping up there the birds are still active and there is plenty of wildlife just no RSPB. We will be back again at the start of the breeding season to make sure the peregrines are safe.

Thank you everyone that volunteered and worked on the project and made it a fantastic year, if not the best year ever!

Thank you to the public that came to see the peregrines - I do that you come again next year to see if they will do any better with raising their young.

We're not. We got more great views today including an attempt by a female to mug our female Peregrine of here well earned dinner. Raptors were everywhere today, with Six species seen throughout the day. Goshawk, Sparrowhawk, Peregrine, Kestrel, Buzzard and a superb Hobby. We were really hoping for a rarity in the form of a Honey Buzzard or an Osprey but neither appeared. Ospreys are certainly on the move in the UK, so we should be seeing the odd one passing through in the next few weeks.

Another migrant passed through today in the form of a Clouded Yellow, a butterfly that usually appears in the Uk around this time of year but usually at coastal sites where they can be common in some years. So if your at the Rock in the next few weeks look out for some bright Yellow butterflies an ofcourse an Osprey or two. Well, maybe not two ospreys but i'll be dissapointed if we don't see one. Keep your fingers crossed!

Yip, you heard right folks, summer is officially over. Today at the viewpoint several hundred swifts were seen heading south. Its always quite sad to these magnificent birds disappear for the winter. We also got a few other 'autumn' migrants pass through today. Probably Common Gull being the most notable and a Green Sandpiper on the river last Wednesday.

The mass movement of swift attracted a Hobby that kept appearing through the day but I don’t think it managed to inconvenience any of the swifts. Another good looking raptor also made a welcome return to our sightings board this afternoon. A Red Kite! We've not seen one of these for well over a month. Just to make the day even better the Goshawks continued to show regularly including one juv that took a real disliking to a young buzzard. The Buzz decided it would knock the Goshawk off its perch, so obviously this meant war. The Goshawk started chasing the buzzard all over the valley, repeatedly giving it a few left hooks and a boot in the backside. Eventually the buzzard threw in the towel and dived for cover. I guess that buzzard wont be going anywhere near goshawks in the near future.

Usually its birds of prey that get all the attention at the rock but over the past few weeks another species has been making the headlines, Crossbills. Theres been a bit of an influx to the UK over the last month and we've certainly had our fair share. We've had flocks of up to 30 going through the valley in all directions. Sightings have started to dry up but there are still some hanging around in certain areas of the Forest of Dean.

I can't update the Blog without mentioning our peregrines, but as usual they are not up to much. They seem to be spending most of their time sitting around on the cliff watching all the antics of our other raptors, but still providing us with great views. We also had a youngster pass overhead this morning, hopefully one of many that have fledged from other nests in the county.

 

Well..... What can I say!

First thing I saw when I arrived at the viewpoint this morning was a food pass by our peregrines. As if that wasn't enough our fledgling goshawks have been trying their hand (or wing) at hunting. We spent most of the afternoon showing people goshawks perched, flying, and chasing each other, pretty much everything except doing back flips. Well, as one point they almost did!

One juvenile was obviously hungry and had a really go at catching a woodpigeon. There were a couple of pigeons enjoying themselves in the rain at the top of a conifer until a female goshawk decided they were on the menu. The youngster has obviously been watching our peregrines hunting as she did a superb stoop straight towards the unsuspecting woodpigeons. Luckily for the pigeons she missed them but it was a really good effort, 10 out of 10!

Also we discovered that there are actually three young goshawks which is a really good number for the a pair to fledge. At one point they were all in the air together along with an adult perched in a nearby tree keeping an eye on their antics.

Hopefully they will keep showing like this for the next few weeks, so come and have a look ASAP!

In my last post I said ' Hopefully the young will start to show as they attempt to explore the beautiful Wye Valley'. Well..... They did

 I am on about young Goshawks which have been getting louder by the day. But up until today they remained hidden in the dense conifer opposite the viewpoint. We really weren't expecting to see much today as the weather was quite simply awful, but in between showers at least two Juvenile Goshawks were seen practicing their flying skill in the wind.

Our poor peregrines were ignored slightly whilst all this was going on but they were on show for anyone mad enough to visit us in the beautiful summer weather.

Hopefully the Goshawks will continue to show over the weekend before they start to explore further afield, so my advice would be to come and have a look sooner rather than later!

 

After the failure of our peregrine pair we were eagerly awaiting signs of another spectacular raptors chicks fledging. Goshawks are regularly seen at the rock and behavior seemed to suggest breeding somewhere in the area. A few months ago we saw a rather large female goshawk acting very territorial, chasing anything away from here patch of trees. We thought that she might have had chicks and our suspicions were confirmed a few days ago when we heard the sound of fledgling goshawks calling to their parents for food.

It's quite remarkable that we haven’t seen a goshawk at the site for weeks but they have obviously successfully reared young under our noses! Hopefully the young will start to show as they attempt to explore the beautiful Wye Valley.

We have also been seeing plenty of youngsters visiting our feeders. Great tits, robins, dunnocks and even marsh tit fledglings have been seen in the vicinity over the past few weeks. A really pleasant surprise was seeing a spotted flycatcher feeding a fledged chick this morning. I had to visit the viewpoint early this morning and was really glad I did.

A peregrine has been shot dead in the Forest of Dean, luckily not one of the pair at Symonds Yat Rock. However, another local peregrine was found dead near to our Nagshead nature reserve on 2 June. The original Symonds Yat project was designed to help protect the peregrines from egg collectors and illegal persecution and started 25 years ago - what a shame that these things are still going on under our nose! 

 

Looking at the x-rays, it shows that the bird has been shot at reasonably close range with a shotgun. If you have any information about the shooting then please call the police directly on 0845 090 1234 (quoting the incident number 296 of June 2). Alternatively, call the RSPB in confidence on 0845 466 3636.

On the 23 June the Walkway to the Symonds Yat Rock Viewpoint will be closed all day for resurfacing work. Luckily the alternative viewpoint will be open all day for views of the Wye. Unfortunately the viewpoint doesn't offer views of the peregrines or cliff face and the RSPB will not be onsite for the day.

Not to worry we will be back on Wednesday at 10am to see how the peregrines have coped without us.

I mentioned the club-tailed dragonfly a few weeks ago but up until now we've only been getting glimpses of them whizzing passed the view point.

Imagine our excitment when this mature female decided to spend the afternoon hanging out with us at the the Rock. Thankfully I managed to get a photo whilst it was nice and close.

You can tell it's a mature female because of its black and yellow colouring and the green eye. This is also the only dragonfly species in the UK which has eyes which don't meet at the middle, another good ID feature for club-tailed dragonfly. However the most obvious feature is the club-shaped tail.

The flight season is now coming to an end but one was seen yesturday, so it's not too late to visit the Rock for a view of this superb and rare insect.

We've been a little quiet over the past few weeks on the blog which reflects the peregrine action that we've been watching (or the lack of it). This time of year is when young would be fledging but as most of you might have guessed, our peregrines failed to produce any chicks again this year!

This year the eggs simply never hatched which is slightly different from what happened last year. The chicks hatched but soon died, presumably due to weather. But could have been anything. Thankfully other peregrine pairs around the area seem to be doing well, so thankfully what’s happened to our pair in an isolated incident.

Thankfully over the past few days we've been getting good views of the male perched up on his favourite rock, obviously thinking about what would have been happening around now, chicks fledging.

Other raptor species have been making appearances over the past few weeks including red kite seen on two dates plus hobby and goshawk.

During the very busy bank holiday weekend a red kite made a brief appearance but sadly didn't hang around for long. Thankfully today it reappeared and showed really well handling the strong winds really well. Red kites have been becoming more regular at Symonds Yat due to the expanding populations found in the Chilterns and of course Wales.

The other feature of the weekend and today was the painted lady butterfly. There have been thousands appearing all over the southern half of the UK over the weekend with a few reaching us at 'the rock'. Today I counted 56 in total with a majority continuing their journey north. A hummingbird hawk moth was another pleasant surprise today as well as a few club-tailed dragonflies emerging off the river. These are very local insects in the UK with the River Wye being a stronghold.

There's still no good news about the peregrines but keep popping back to find out what our peregrine pair are up to!

Everyone is getting excited about the buzz of the bank holiday and I am optimistic that peregrines eggs will hatch, possibly today!

What a brilliant day for the birds of prey! This morning the male peregrine was sitting on antlers (a common perch) brilliant!

Mid day - We hit the jackpot and an immature osprey flies past northwards. On its way back from Africa but obviously not in a hurry!

No peregrine eggs hatched today but Osprey is a top trumps! Our fingers are still crossed but it is not looking good for the peregrines they are more than a week overdue but mum is still incubating!

This week we were really hoping to report some great news about the peregrine pair but frustratingly we are still waiting for the eggs to hatch. They should have hatched a few days ago but there are no signs of the parents bringing in food for the chicks.

Luckily, a hobby lifted everyone’s spirits on Tuesday (12th) when it was seen hawking insects over the River Wye. We hope that this superb little falcon will become a regular sight at 'the rock' throughout the summer.

Other raptors that have been making regular appearances this week include a pair of goshawks, sparrowhawks, buzzards, a kestrel and of course our peregrines.

All the staff and volunteers are now eagerly awaiting the arrival of our peregrine chicks. It’s now been a month since the pair started sitting on the eggs so hatching is imminent! After last year’s disaster, we are all hoping for a better year.

Other birds have been quite busy at the rock this week including our now resident marsh tits. They have been visiting for feed very regularly. Also the nuthatch has been visiting almost hourly, providing a pleasant distraction whilst waiting for the peregrines to arrive back from their hunting expeditions.

Hopefully, the next update will have some good news about our peregrine pair!

The peregrines have been showing particularly well this week with food being brought to the cliffs daily.

On several occassions during the warmer weather the male and female have been perched in view together offering the chance for size comparison which was fantastic!

On Saturday morning the early risers were treated to awesome views as the male struggled to bring in a ferel pigeon and was forced to land in the field opposite the rock, allowing us to focus the telescopes on the female bird who ate, whilst the male protected the kill from inquisitive buzzards. At the same time a female sparrowhawk was showing beautifully over our heads. What a day!

The star bird this week was an escaped turkey which has been thrilling visitors and staff a like! Quite unusual!

Several marsh tits have been showing well too.

We are all getting ready for our Dawn Chorus next week - if you would to join us on the 3rd at Symonds Yat then give us a ring on 01594 833057 to book. It starts quite early so be prepared!