 |
| Walk through Cirencester and see it with fresh eyes. |
On an uncharacteristically hot
and sunny bank holiday weekend, Cirencester Wildlife Group met in the Roman
Amphitheatre for a guided bird walk, hosted by Andy Lewis from the North
Cotswold Ornithological Society. With temperatures predicted to reach into the
low 20’s for both Friday and Saturday the conditions were perfect, and true to
form our feathered friends didn’t disappoint.
Friday’s walk began with an
unexpected arrival, an Australian couple who had recently arrived in the UK and
were looking for somewhere to stretch their legs.
“Aye, you’ll never guess what
they are!” – Upon spying Andy’s binoculars.
Strangely enough they were both
keen bird spotters from Adelaide and lucky for us they must’ve packed some
Aussie sunshine! After a quick trip back to the car they soon returned,
binoculars in hand.
After listening to a few songs
and calls, and Andy interpreting the morning chorus - “twiit, twiit” nuthatch, “teecha-teecha-teecha”
great tit, “tser err-err-err” blue
tit – we began our walk.
It wasn’t long before we had our
first guest, a great stotted woodpecker, which was heard calling long before it
was spotted “tchick…tchick…tchick”. After
sitting in the tree for a few minutes, no doubt wondering what we were all
staring at, accommodatingly it glided down to a nearby bird feeder so we could all
get a closer look – Beautiful!
As we continued on around the
amphitheatre we heard and saw many different woodland birds: blackcaps,
chiffchaffs and gold crest. We also heard lots of wrens, with their
characteristic trill, as well as a few different stories about the birds of
Australia. Apparently their robins really do have a red breast, unlike the
dusky orange of their British equivalent! But their magpies aren’t actually
magpies, think that makes us even.
 |
| All kinds of birds inhabit Cirencester! |
Strangely enough, for such a warm
morning, we didn’t see any birds of prey – that would have to wait until the
following morning.
Saturday’s walk started in the
same way, the only difference being it was a little warmer and there were no antipodean
additions! "pink, pink”
chaffinch, “oo-OO-oo” woodpigeon and of course the, by now, unmistakable trill
of the wren.
It looked like this walk would
also end without any birds of prey but just as Andy was drawing things to a
close a sparrow hawk circled overhead and shortly after a long tailed tit flew across
in front of us carrying a feather in its beak – a lovely late flourish to end
two very enjoyable walks.
Thank you to everyone who came
along, we hope you enjoyed it. And thank you to Andy Lewis for volunteering his
time to support the Group. If anyone is interested in receiving notifications
about upcoming events please email wildciren@gmail.com
for details.
Mel, Huw and Scott
Cirencester Wildlife Group
P.S. there’s an open invitation
to attend an Adelaide Bird Society field meeting, if anyone is looking for an
excuse to stretch their legs (or spread their wings)!
No comments:
Post a Comment