FOREST FARE
Close to home, but plenty of surprises in Sherwood left our editor a merry man
Come on, be honest. When you hear the words ‘Sherwood Forest’, you think of one thing only. But, not wanting to reignite the old Nottinghamshire-Yorkshire debate as to the origins of the man in the green tights, I won’t be mentioning him again (and anyway, as a native of Leicestershire, we have our own candidate).
Being an East Midlander, you might think I’d know Nottinghamshire fairly well, but most of my birding in the county had been south of the Trent. Sherwood Hideaway, where I was staying, is just outside the former mining town of Ollerton, in north-central Notts. It’s an area where old spoil heaps loom over the landscaped vistas of ‘The Dukeries’, such as Clumber Park and Rufford Abbey, and where recent conifer plantations rub shoulders with the sort of ancient oak forest that… well, you know where I’m going with that, don’t you?
So, I started by enjoying a cold drink on the verandah of my cabin. The Hideaway is well named, because even though you’re no great distance off two main roads, you feel like you’re in the middle of nowhere.
The quiet of the spring dusk was broken only by birdsong – Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Willow Warbler and all the commoner garden birds, plus a couple of very showy Mistle Thrushes.
And then, as the light faded, there was the unmistakable sight of a Woodcock’s broad-winged, flickering flight as it crossed our clearing, then disappeared over the treetops.
Next morning, my first stop was Welbeck Raptor Watchpoint, which is essentially a pull-in on a quiet road, with great views over the Welbeck Estate. There’s strictly no entry to the estate itself, but there’s no need – just set up your scope, scan above the trees, and don’t forget to take a look at the ornamental lake, too.
BUT THE REAL HIGHLIGHT WAS A SLAVONIAN GREBE IN BREEDING PLUMAGE, THE FIRST TIME I’VE EVER SEEN ONE AWAY FROM THEIR REGULAR SCOTTISH NESTING SITES
It was a little too early in the spring for Honey Buzzards, and probably a little too late for displaying Goshawks, but both species are regularly seen here. Buzzards were plentiful, there was a Sparrowhawk passing through, and two Kestrels, while the lake yielded Lapwings, Shelducks and my first Common Tern of the year.
Nearby are Budby Common and Budby South Woods, offering both woodland and large areas of heath, with all the specialist species that you might expect.
Eyes on storks
Both Wood Lark and Tree Pipit were singing at the latter site, with one pipit taking up a perch in a branch just above my head. There must have been something in the air making the birds particularly confiding, because a Garden Warbler, presumably just arrived, sang from atop a bush just a few feet away. Elsewhere, there were plenty of Yellowhammers, and a twilight visit later in the summer should bring Nightjars.
So far, I’d stayed within a five-mile radius of my base, but with the weather improving, I decided to move a bit further afield.
The RSPB’s Langford Lowfields reserve, just outside Newark, might be described as a work in progress, as it’s in the process of being developed from a huge quarry. But that’s not to say that it doesn’t have a huge amount to offer already.
Within minutes of arriving, there was the unmistakable low-frequency sound of a booming Bittern, and although it remained out of sight, Great White Egrets were on full view, plus Avocets. Sedge Warblers announced their arrival from Africa – very noisily – and at least four Hobbies wheeled and soared above.
But the real highlight was a Slavonian Grebe in breeding plumage, the first time I’ve ever seen one away from their regular Scottish nesting sites. It was distant, but still utterly glorious in all its finery.
And oddly enough, another highlight was the bird, or rather birds, that didn’t show. As I arrived at one of the viewing platforms, one of the RSPB volunteers and a local birder were scanning the skies over Newark intently, and when I asked, they told me they were looking for the arrival of four White Storks which had been sighted that morning in Derbyshire, and which had been following the line of the Trent north and east, according to the news services.
I joined in. So did other birders as they arrived. The tension grew and grew as alerts and messages pinged through saying that they were over the church in the centre of Newark. There it was on the skyline. Surely we’d be able to see such large birds?
We didn’t. And then they disappeared off the radar, so to speak. We hadn’t
seen them, the birders who had been attempting to follow them had lost sight of them, and they vanished. We assumed they’d headed away east, over Lincolnshire, but the following morning, they popped up again a couple of miles away. I was long gone by then, of course, but, oddly, it didn’t matter. The whole experience was tense and exciting, and of course there’d been that Slav Grebe as consolation.
Garganey and Gulls
Next day, I headed north, to the Idle Washlands, right on the border of Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire. As the name suggests, it’s an expanse of pools, flashes, scrapes and floodplain along the River Idle, and it’s easily viewed from the track between Newington and Misson. You can certainly get out and set up your scope for scanning at several points, but it’s also possible to just drive slowly along and pause here and there, using your car as a hide.
The main highlight on my visit was an absolutely pristine drake Garganey, on Hagg Lane Flash. Of course, it’s always the white supercilium (‘eyebrow’) that catches your eye, but get a good scope view of one like this, at relatively short range, and you start to appreciate all those lovely vermiculations, too.
There were Avocets on the scrapes, too, and plenty of hirundines and gulls, and this is one of those sites that’s worth checking often and thoroughly during migration periods.
I made my way back a little further south, to Idle Valley Nature Reserve, a Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust site just outside Retford, again based around former gravel pits.
There’s a modern visitor centre, and hides and viewpoints around some of the pools, but what really strikes you about the site is just how big it is – there’s such a network of paths, and so many different corners to explore, that you have every chance to make your own discoveries. Even on a fine spring day, with the main car-park full, it never felt busy.
Finding more Hobbies hawking over the lakes was not unexpected, but thrilling nonetheless, as I was able to watch one at close range and eye level from one of the raised platforms, while Cuckoos called incessantly. But a real bonus was a couple of Little Gulls, fluttering and flickering low over the water on one of the lakes in their elegant, not especially gull-like, way. It was a day on which they were popping up all over the country on migration, and Idle Valley is the sort of site that repays close attention at such times.
After a brief return visit to Budby South Woods to see more Tree Pipits, I left the Hideaway after a very enjoyable long weekend with a considerably longer year list, and plenty of reasons to return to Nottinghamshire in the near future. Not one of them involved a bloke with a bow and arrow.