1st
April 2010
Grieg Peer Gynt
Up early at 6:00 a.m. to try to get a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker onto my year list but no luck. A good Dawn Chorus enjoyed though, with drumming Great Spotted Woodpeckers, singing Blackcaps, chiff chaffing Chiff Chaffs and a female Grey Wagtail seen later by the river. I should have played an April Fool trick on the staff at the hostel but I will not divulge why. The weather was cloudless, cool and sunny, with a gibbous Moon setting. It was not to last.
I was met by Chris, the new RSPB warden for Symonds Yet viewpoint. Chris actually met me as I was about to start the steep ascent towards the viewpoint and offered to take my panniers up the hill for me. I declined and pushed the heavily laden bike upwards. At the wonderful, calendar photo-like viewpoint down came the rain again but not before I had great views of the Peregrines and a Goshawk [165], the latter which although circling a distant ridge, was seen well through a telescope. Later I dipped Hawfinch at Speech House with it still raining hard and then got Mandarins [166] on nearby pools.
A nice walk around the pretty Nagshead RSPB Reserve, well it was until the rain came down again in bucketsful. I met Barry the warden, another birder, the latter being something of a rarity on my birding trip. I would have liked to have stayed the night here and been there in the early morning for the Dawn Chorus but the rain was torrential and after all, I had booked a night at St Brieval’s Youth Hostel.
I got there in the dark, soaked to the skin but happy to have made it, finding that St Brieval’s was a large, imposing castle. What a fantastic youth hostel! A truly brilliant place with effervescent people staying there. These included a lovely family from Belfast and three fabulously entertaining Australians, Mark, Janet and Niamh Clemens from Tasmania. Great to meet you, Aussies!
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