Birds of the forest

On 02/05, I had a wonderful day, under mostly sunny skies, catching up with birding pals Dan and Gareth, in Dan's adopted neck of the woods - the Forest of Dean.

He took us round some fab habitat, largely in areas I'd not visited before and got to soak up some fab birds including several Wood Warbler (always my favourite), a Goshawk, calling Hawfinch, 2-3 Pied Flys, several Firecrest, Redstart, Tree Pipit & Mandarin. 

Em & I took Luca on his first ever little holiday - just a short little break to the New Forest 10/05 - 12/05.

We spent quite a bit of time taking him out in the buggy for big walks and with bins / camera in tow, I saw an awesome array of birds! Highlights included Hawfinch, more Firecrest than you could shake a stick at, several Woodlark, Dartford Warbler, Redstart, a Goshawk, Tree Pipits, Hobby, Spot Fly, Stonechat, Crossbills, several Cuckoo and loads of Siskin. Pretty bloody awesome, although didn't bump into a single Wood Warbler - a sad sign of the times.