Bad timing - a miserable week at Monmouth, 12 May to 19 May 2007. Rain every day except Thursday.
The cottages were OK, if a little noisy from neighbours, but the location was nothing short of spectacular. Perched on a hill with perfectly clear views all round, this place managed to satisfy me on 2 counts - birding and astronomy.
As we were unpacking the car I could hear several lapwings and skylarks, they were the omnipresent birds for the week, along with robins, blackbirds, goldfinches, greenfinches, chaffinches, swallows, swifts, house martins, and the ubiquitous sparrows.
We were happy to view several large quantities of buzzards away in the pines of the Rolls estate over the road (and red deer too), which were occasionally mobbed by crows, jackdaws, red kite, kestrels, and on one occasion, peregrines.
A solitary little owl was eventually tracked down to a tree about 1 mile away, and chiffchaffs, pied wagtails and greater spotted woodpeckers were a little easier to find. A yellowhammer took a bit longer to spot as he kept moving, but I did manage to get the tick.
We did make a couple of trips to the Forest of Dean, but completely failed to find Nagshead Reserve - do the RSPB actually want us to find it ?? No signs or portents anywhere ! Instead, we stopped off at Beechenhurst where I managed to spot a goldcrest, linnets, wood warbler and to my great joy - a Cetti's warbler !
The last thing I ticked for 2007 was a single yellow wagtail in a bunch of pieds, along the banks of the river in Monmouth.
Not a complete waste of time, but not the success I was hoping for.
EDIT :
It wasn't a yellow wagtail but a grey !! Didnt spot it till I double checked my books. That's another life tick :)