We hoped there might be some Crossbills about, as we had seen them there before and I had seen a report of them earlier in the month. But it was very very quiet, it was about 20 minutes before we even saw a bird of any kind and that was of course a Robin, followed a bit later by a blackbird.
We found a fallen tree to use as a bench and had a coffee, we sat for a while and waited hoping to see anything, but only a some overflying Crows and Woodpigeon were seen. We thought that we might have seen a Falcon, but it was above the canopy and disappeared before the binoculars could be brought to bear.
We carried on down to the river, the paths were terrible, good job we had boots on, although our trousers were covered in mud by the end, walking was very difficult in places. Along the river we added a few Mallard and a solitary Moorhen. Thing livened up a bit as we left the wood and crossed the open area towards Trimpley Reservoir, seeing a number of Blue, Great and Coal Tit. We continued walking along the river and found the Mandarin Ducks. There was 11 of them tucked in under the trees on the far bank of the river. This didn't make for great photographs as it was very gloomy under the trees despite the lovely sunshine.
From here we scaled the reservoir embankment to find a bench for lunch. The top reservoir had a few Cormorant, Feral Pigeon and Black-headed Gulls. While we were having lunch a at least one Goldcrest put in an appearance in the conifers behind us, but that was a very fleeting view.
The lower reservoir had a number of Goosander, but by the time we walked down that way they had all departed. So we crossed the Severn Valley Railway line and climbed back up to the Car Park with only a Grey Squirrel adding to our sightings for the day, until a Song Thrush appeared on top of one of the pines.
So all in all a lovely if somewhat muddy walk, perhaps we will leave another visit until Spring and let the paths dry out a bit!
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