Trip reports

Chetsford Water - Saturday 8 August 2009

Friday, 21 August 2009

Parking near the bridge at the head of the valley, the group only had to walk a few paces before they found their first good birds. In a small patch of a couple of trees there was a stonechat and a gorgeous male redstart. Several ravens were croaking away overhead and there was also a soaring buzzard in the blue sky.
Walking downstream, the party encountered what appeared to be a family of mistle thrushes. Crossing and recrossing the stream among the stunted thorn trees, gorse, heather and bracken, they suddenly arrived at a spot that seemed to be alive with small birds and those added to the list included wren, two sedge warblers, song thrush, several willow warblers, a male bullfinch, blue tit, great tit, blackbird, goldfinch, linnet, a few more stonechats and some meadow pipits. A kestrel flew overhead.
Further downstream, the group found a couple of whinchats and at a crossing just above Nutscale Reservoir they discovered a female blackcap, a spotted flycatcher, and some chiffchaffs. Meanwhile, large numbers of house martins were flying overhead.
With the warm, still conditions, there seemed to be numerous butterflies about and those seen included meadow brown, small and large whites, green veined white, small copper, small heath, gatekeeper and ringlet. There was a superb pair of golden-ringed dragonflies, the female of which was busy laying her eggs in the boggy ground.
After casting an eye over the reservoir, the group headed back upstream again and turned into the bottom of Ember Combe only to find that it was very quiet with just some stonechats and meadow pipits on view. It was decided to walk back towards the cars and the day finished with one or two more interesting sightings, namely a keeled skimmer dragonfly and some fairly common moths - northern spinach, a twin spot and a type of carpet moth.