On 21 May (this year coinciding with Biodiversity Week) ten GNS members attended what has now become an annual evening field meeting in early summer at the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust reserve at Coombe Hill. The aim was to look at breeding waterbirds and to note any other birds that might come to roost on the scrapes in the evening. After a very wet winter and spring, with almost permanent flooding from late October until mid-April, many of the meadows were still very damp, often with a mat of dying vegetation preventing normal spring flower growth – reminiscent of the historic July 2007 floods.
The evening timing meant that there was only limited birdsong along the towpath, though Sedge and Reed Warblers, Blackcap and Lesser Whitethroats, Chiffchaff and Reed Bunting were all heard; rather surprisingly, there was no Cuckoo song, though this species has been heard by day on the reserve. While walking along the towpath, we met a group of very young boy and girl scouts in full uniform who said they had enjoyed their visit and seen lots of swans.
From the hide overlooking the scrapes we too saw up to 30 Swans, mostly immature non-breeding birds that have concentrated here for the summer: a swan nest below the boardwalk appeared to have been abandoned. At least five broods of Mallard ducklings (some of them nearly full-grown, so the eggs must have been laid early on when the floods were still high, perhaps in nests in the boles of willows and other trees), and broods of very young Coot were seen. Because of the very wet conditions, wader nests were late: a single Oystercatcher was incubating in a determined way; probably two pairs of Avocets (though hard to be sure, as they often settle on the islands on what look like nests, when in fact they are just resting); a single pair of Little Ringed Plovers; Lapwings were mainly nesting on a barley field; Redshanks were present and noisy with breeding calls but may not yet have settled down to lay eggs; just before dusk, four adult Curlews flew in, two pairs, one of them carrying rings that showed it to be one of the birds raised in an incubator from eggs (“head-started”) at Slimbridge in 2019 and now nesting nearby; their arrival was not a good sign, since if they had had an active nest, they should have been incubating the eggs; indeed it was later confirmed by the WWT team studying Curlews in the Severn and Avon Vales that the nest had failed today.
Also present were an immature Great White Egret, and several Grey Herons, some of them immatures, just flying, from a nearby heronry.
No sign of migrant waders like Greenshank, which may well be passing through on their way to Arctic breeding grounds as this time of year, but – as agreed by the members who took part – a magical experience at this time of year producing a feeling of calm serenity.
There was also a good display of Tiger Sawgill fungus (Lentinus tigrinus), an uncommon find in Britain, growing here on the waterlogged rotting branches of willow.