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Forest of Dean

I had a day in the Forest yesterday, walking and then a ride on the preserved railway. The trouble with woodland is that you don't get the rapid views of multiple species that you get in wetlands. However, after parking at the Nags Head reserve I walked down to the Lower Hide. The ponds were pretty well down to muddy pools and I was treated to the unusual site of what must have been a family of nuthatches bathing. I had lost the sense of scale through the bins and I wasn't sure what I was looking at until a robin hopped into view to give me a relative size. The real treat was a nuthatch working its way up an oak tree. I then walked through the forest to Bix Slade and down the line of the old tramway to the wharf on the old railway by Cannop Ponds. No manarin ducks this time but I did see tufties, moorhen, and both pied and grey wagtails. I followed the railway back to the road, crossed back over the Cannop Brook and planned to follow a forestry track back to the reserve. However the Forestry Commission had abandoned that ride decades ago judging by the undergrowth. There had been little recent wild boar damage to be seen and the heavy damage from last year was growing over. Walking the last leg up the hill to the reserve I started by following some tractor ruts which became heavily overgrown with bracken. With patches of freshly turned earth on this section and thick cover within inches on either side I was wondering if there were any boar close by. The path seemed to be bending away from the old ride and eventually petered out. I was just thinking of turning back when came across the path to the Lower Hide.
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