A Lovely Weekend

This weekend I had an exciting trip up to Symonds Yat in Gloucestershire. Sometimes I really, really love my job especially on weekends when I get to stand in the sunshine and show visitors amazing wildlife. But I'm a little exhausted by all that wildlife, so, this is just a quick blog about some of the fantastic things I've seen in the last few days, and a longer blog will follow later in the day.


The highlight for me has to be hearing my first cuckoo of the year at about 11am on Saturday morning.  Brilliant to hear them again and always amazing to think they've flown all the way from Africa.

The stars of the show were the peregrines flying around their nest and showing off catching pigeons throughout the weekend, but mainly just sitting and chilling out on the rock face. Fasted animals in the world you know!

A kingfisher was seen distantly below in a tree by the winding river and the marvels of telescopes meant we could all see it very clearly and it stuck around for ages, before some canoeists accidentally scared it off.

Other highlights were the nuthatches nesting, the roe deer grazing in the fields below and the buzzards circling above. The sunshine helped keep spirits up too!

Definitely a good weekend and I was lucky enough to be at Symonds Yat at the best time of year with bluebells out and warblers singing in the trees. If you have a spare day in the nest few weeks, take a trip up (or down, or across to) the fantastic Forest of Dean!

Blog number two of the day coming later....