The heavy rain of the previous day had abated and it was a bright and fresh morning as we travelled across the moor to Postbridge, with some beautiful scenes of mist in the valleys with blue sky and sun above. Eleven of us gathered in the car park on the corner of Bellever Forest and soon picked up a few birds in the nearby shrubs and trees, including Goldcrest and Jay and a pair of Raven croaking overhead. We walked up the lane towards Bellever village, adding a few more of the commoner species and also a female Reed Bunting. There were a few Mistle Thrushes hopping about in one of the fields, but no sign of Fieldfare or Redwing. Things remained quiet as we made our way through the woods back to the car park, and by now the sun had disappeared and a steady rain was falling. We took a coffee break in our cars and when the rain had eased we crossed the road to explore around the Postbridge visitor centre. A well-stocked feeder in the neighbouring garden explained the lack of birds across the road – they were all here! There was a constant stream of Coal, Blue and Great Tits working their way through the trees and bushes to the feeder and then away again. A possible Marsh Tit, but not seen well enough, and definite Nuthatch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, and then a couple of Treecreepers showing very well on the trees trunks around the visitor centre car park. We searched through the flock of Chaffinches present, but sadly no Bramblings appeared to be around, probably because of the relatively mild weather so far this autumn/winter.
As the rain began to pick up again, we decided to call and early halt to the walk and move on the the second part of our day, which was the Christmas lunch at the Ring of Bells in North Bovey. After an interesting route down some exceedingly narrow lanes, we arrived and settled down with some drinks in a delightfully cosy room in the pub. Christmas crackers were pulled, hats put on and some terrible cracker jokes relayed, as is all traditional, following which a few of us had brief views of Turkey, but apparently we couldn’t add this to our species list for the day. Excellent food (really to be recommended!) and company.
Species seen (just 20): Blackbird, Blue Tit, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Dunnock, Goldcrest, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Great Tit, Grey Heron, Jay, Mistle Thrush, Nuthatch, Raven, Reed Bunting, Robin, Song Thrush, Stonechat, Treecreeper, Wren
Report and photo by Tom Misselbrook
