Crabtree Hill & Woorgreens Lake

Leader Amanda Sultan-Black

Gloucestershire is a blessed county if you’re a birdwatcher; it’s home to some of the UK’s standout birds.  The nightjar is a premier example of this; its appearance at dusk has led to many folktales about its nature. In days gone by, they were referred to as “goatsuckers, steming from an ancient belief that these nocturnal birds would sneak into barns at night and suckle milk from goats. This myth likely arose due to their habit of flying close to livestock while hunting for insects, leading people to mistakenly associate them with harming the animals. Thier latinname Caprimulgus:  (capra = goat, mulgere = to milk) remains as a nod to this mythical lineage.

These are target birds for this evening trip and Crabtree Hill is a local stronghold for these birds.

Before the main event well have time to take in some other delights.  We’ll Meet at 7.00 pm at the stone works on the B4228, which is the road running parallel to Cannop Ponds from Parkend. We will have a walk looking for wildfowl and waterfowl (Mandarin, Grebes, Wagtails & Dipper) also woodland species such as Warblers, Flycatchers and Redstart) Leaving around 8.00pm we will drive to another part of the forest for a walk looking for Nightjars, Owls and Woodcock as the Nightjars will hopefully start churring around 9.00pm.

We’ll likely return to our cars after dark at around 10:0pm so bring a torch for the walk back.