Page 34 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #05

MY CYCLE ROUTE:
844 MILES
IN 13 DAYS
Just outside o d o h o
During my journey I
Keynsham, I classic spring songsters – redstarts and
id d t tak in a
arrow avoided pied fl catchers. Paul was an excelle
man events
edation attempt guide, his ears twitching as they listened
at reserves I visited
h n t f r th i tin ti n t f th
along the way as I
overtake on a blind bend. The sigh o his woo an sprites. “Hang on a minute,
ould. These are the
air es was t rst in cation e was w at’s t at?” e’ s eve minute
best of them and the
ehind me, looming like a shark out of t two, w i e I ear not ing. T e re star
ildlife you can spot
elagic gloom bellowing out from the top of a Scots pine
was the hi li t. From the reserve, I
DAY3SUNDAY23APRIL cycled into a wicked northerly wind and 1 RSPB
Another early morning appointment a ong t e A523 t rou Lee to Bo ington, HAMWALL
this time 6.30am with the warden o and m friends Kate and Chris’ house. wetland reserve in the overs an
RSPB Hig nam Woo s, Hanna Boot . omerset Levels that’s un in. y
My feet had turned into two blocks of ice DAY5TUESDAY25APRIL renowned or having goa , owever,
y t e time I reac e t e reserve – t e Bu e an t, erverse weig e ix species o breedi as a r ng
temperature a are c im e a ove down! b an unhealth suppl of Kate’s erons. y goa was to uz a rare
3˚C – but what of it? Within earshot of the home-made flap acks, I set off in almos ear ooming itterns, in the UK,
ar par , a ni tin a e was s nt esisin a - i f th k butApril is also a good nyway
series of lon , pure notes from the middle r r f R PB D t n . A P time to visit or marsh frican
of a tan ed thicket. While a small reserve Shri e , I climbed to more than 00m and arrier action,p us ree migrant ot erwise
y RSPB stan ar s, Hig nam Woo s is ound ice nestling besides drystone wall an se ge war ers an wn as
micro-mana ed or these son birds. I arrived at Dove Stone our hours ot er migrant song ir s mou .
But creatin per ect habitat is onl one later after the hardest riding of the whole uc as ac caps. ww.rsp .org
rt of the uations – March and o tr and chilled to the bone, but a hot ww.rsp .org amwa ovest
imto rin a cu tura
henomenon I’d n
AT DOVE STONE’S CHEW RESERVOIR, ome across before soon 2 RSPB 4 RSPB
LOCH GARTEN
HIGHNAM
IT BEGAN TO SNOW – SO MUCH FOR ut me rig t. WOODS ne of the best locations
ar en on Bir a Just outside loucester, n t e country to see
CHASING SPRING NORTH, WINTER romised to find me ig nam oo s is at spreys,views o the
in ouzel, or mountain the extreme edge o the sh hawk’are alm
HAD CREPT UP BEHIND ME. lackbird, but at Che nig tinga e s range, guarantee at t e e a
eservoir st a ove a species more easi y rom e car
far April hadn’t received much rain, and 500m, it began to snow – so much fo so an ar . was a so oping
Hanna was worrie a out ow it wou c asin ri nort , winter a cre east. s a sp en o see capercai ies,
impact on the ni tingales’ ability to up e in me. On t e way ac own, location for this most ut there have been
f f r th ir hi k . “I’ n r n it Jon some ow spotte somet ing moving amous o songbirds, so ew sightings o this
so ry,” s e sai , ic ing at t e ruts in t e several hundred metres awa . He whipped not east ecause you sadly declining in the
forest ride we were walkin alon out is scope i e an o -sc oo magician can hear them sin in K species of grouse
From Hig nam, I s irte Worcester an t ere it was, my secon trip tic (to go e moment you get out from the sprey entre
ia Le ury, Leominster an Lu o wit t e g ossy i is of your car or o
and some of the loveliest back roads I From Dove Stone I too t e train into bike .They arrive in the rou ht its‘caper-watch
encountered durin the trip. At Upleadon, e n e it last week of pril,but rogramme to an en .
near Newent ue e s s immere i e i t roug Greater Manc este per aps t e est time to ww.rsp .org
mira e in a woodland desert. didn’t appea , from where I rode up into hear them is mid-Ma . ochgarte
the Forest of Bowland. I stopped briefl ww.rsp .org
DAY4MONDAY24APRIL at a si n welcomin me to the Area of ig namwoo 5 RSPB
I was bound for RS Coombes Outstan ing Natu a Beauty epicting a FORSINARD
Valley on the edge o the Pea hen harrier – wha were m chances o 3 RSPB FLOWS
District. I descended alarmin l from seein one, I wo dered? Responses on DOVE STONE veryone s ou see t e
the Shro hire Hills nto the Seve witter were n ot encoura . Briefl famous outside flat peatbo s and peat
Valle , down and d n and down until of birding circles in 2015 ochans o the Flow
I started to eel like ante in T e DAY6WEDNESDAY26APRIL and when the body ountry at least once in
Divine Comed , thou h ur to A ectacular r de out of Bowland
ame on the other de o the produced si tin s of lapwin s, was iscovere near t e ope o catching a hen
river when I hit the ra c curlews and other breedi reservoir,Dove Stone arrier or s ort-eare
hell o Tel ord r f r hi h th r is an upland reserve wl,but had to make do
At Combes Valle , i f m n I n ti that’s good or breeding it ca ing s y ar s an
arden Paul hat hawthorn was wa ers suc as go en greenshanks a strange,
pring 201