‘The best of Britain’, a talk by Tom Mabbett
Tom works for Naturetrek, the wildlife travel company. Introducing his talk he said that it would feature four of his favourite UK locations, patch birding and camera trapping.
When visiting the Ardnamurchan peninsula on the west coast of Scotland west of Fort William, the Naturetrek group stays at the Ardnamurchan Bunkhouse on the Glenborrodale Estate and has sole occupancy. There are birdfeeders outside and jam sandwiches are provided to bring pine martens close in the evenings. Otters can be seen on an early morning walk down to Loch Sunart and red deer graze the lawns. The Ardnamurchan lighthouse stands on the most westerly point of the British mainland and is a good spot for sea watching. The scenery is magnificent. Golden eagles and the re-introduced white-tailed eagle fly over and a day at sea is likely to yield gannet, great skua, common and bottle-nosed dolphins and a possible minke whale. In spring the Lunga and Staffa seabird colonies are busy with guillemots, razorbills, puffins and shags. Red-throated divers are in full breeding plumage while in the woods wood warblers sing. In autumn there is the red deer rut.
Tom has visited The Forest of Dean since he was a youngster. It is the second largest expanse of native forest in the UK with oak, beech, hornbeam and sweet chestnut amongst the main species. Naturetrek parties stay at The Speech House Hotel right in the Forest. In autumn there are flocks of redpolls and siskins and in recent years great grey shrike has wintered. Breeding birds include pied flycatcher, wood warbler, redstart, firecrest and nightjar. Wild boars appeared here in the late 1990s and are now abundant. Butterflies include wood white and the small pearl bordered fritillary. A visit to Symonds Yat in the breeding season provides an opportunity to see young peregrine falcons and there is a superb view over the Wye Valley.
Naturetrek’s Somerset Levels holidays are based at a hotel in Wells. A highlight in autumn is the starling murmurations with local birds reinforced by migrants. They are also spectacular when they leave the roost but this is a much quicker business with the birds scattering to their feeding sites. Wigeon, teal, shoveler and gadwall are all present on the Levels and bearded tits are doing well. Marsh harriers breed and each spring there are more booming male bitterns. Great white egrets also breed and are now common and there are over 100 cattle egrets on the Levels.
Tom’s fourth location was Spurn, particularly for the autumn Migration Festival, though it is also superb during spring migration. With the wind in the right direction huge numbers of birds arrive and one can watch starlings, merlin, and owls coming in over the North Sea. Pied flycatchers which have bred in Scandinavia may bring rarer species such as yellow-browed warbler with them. A trip to the end of the Point in an all-terrain vehicle can produce great flocks of knot.
One of Tom’s patch birding sites is Dowdeswell Reservoir near Cheltenham. It has been fascinating seeing the changes in the bird populations over the years. For example, tufted duck used to be regular but is now scarce. A six year old reedbed now has breeding reed buntings and about five pairs of reed warbler. Kingfishers are seen and snipe drop in during the winter. One cold spell brought a male goosander. In 2010 Tom found a Wilson’s phalarope here. At Cleve Common, Tom monitors the stonechat population. Some years none breed but in other years there are several pairs. He also keeps track of the local adder population. Tom’s family owns 10 acres of land where they have planted trees and hedges and put up nest boxes. A barn owl nested one year and little and tawny owls are present. There are up to 14 pairs of blue tits, small copper butterflies and slow worms.
Finally Tom mentioned camera trapping which allows him to see what is going on when he is not present. He discovered that water rail was breeding at the Reservoir and that otters were also there. Stoat, roe deer and muntjac have been recorded and a heron stood for hours staring at the camera trap.
We thank Tom for a very interesting and enjoyable talk which will have taken some of us back to places we have visited and will no doubt encourage others to look at what Naturetrek has to offer. The Main website is https://www.naturetrek.co.uk/ and there are links to their sustainability overview, their Ecuador Reserve, and all tours including Day Trips, UK and overseas short breaks and holidays, Free Virtual Tours and Free Online Talks.
Helen Baker
