Please feel free to record any of your interesting sightings from visits to the Trap Grounds below.
Header photograph credit Nicola Devine
961 entries.
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Cuckoo singing.
In answer to David G's query (below), I can report that Garden Warblers were confirmed to be breeding in the Trap Grounds in 2002, but I am not aware of any such confirmation since then.
Garden Warbler singing over the Board Walk amongst the morning chorus this morning. ID confirmed with Merlin. Both Blackcap and Garden Warbler singing at the same time, giving an interesting comparison of the two, not dissimilar, songs. Is the Garden Warbler a regular summer resident in the Trap Grounds or a vagrant?
Muntjac in the Wildflower Meadow. Green Woodpecker calling in the far north west corner near the railway and Waterways
MAY MORNING BIRDSONG WALK. Between 7 am and 8 am, in perfect sunny weather, 33 species of bird were identified by David Lowe, Tom Evans, and Alan Allport, who between them led 25 visitors on a very informative stroll around the site. Most notably we saw a Kingfisher and heard numerous Black Caps and the now-resident Cetti's Warbler. But sadly no Cuckoo. (In the past two years we have heard the first Cuckoo of Spring on our May Morning walks.)
A report by Jake Dudderidge: On 1 May 2025, on or around the pond at the south end of the boardwalk, I saw multiple Large Red damselflies, a couple of Common Blue-tailed Damselflies, and an Azure Blue damselfly ovipositing, plus a female Broad-bodied Chaser and the briefest sight of a Hairy Hawker dragonfly. I also saw many Great Tits, cherry trees in bloom, an Orange Tip butterfly, Holly Blues and Small White butterflies, as well as mallards and corvids, including the Jays that flew around a lot!
Kingfisher Pond this morning - Reed Warbler singing in the reeds, Stock Dove singing in the trees above and a Queen White-tailed Bumblebee prospecting for a nest site on a nice open east facing slope.
At 11.30 today the TG was like a Dawn Chorus – ringing with fantastic birdsong and full of flitting, foraging birds of all sizes. Three Jays all together around Polly's Grove – one jay was, it looked like, trying to predate a nest as it was then seen off by a ferocious small brown bird.
Cetti's warbler calling loudly in clear sight atop a dead branch of a hawthorn. It then flew down into Frog Lane ditch and reeds and likewise it saw off another bird from its territory – another small brown bird – maybe a Reed Warbler or Wren. Two M Blackbirds facing off on Frog Lane; Mrs Blackbird foraging quietly; several Mallards in the water; a clutch of inch-and -a-half-long fish in Dragonfly Pond; a chorus of Reed Warblers calling out from the main reedbed; a Goldcrest; a Song thrush; and all the usuals plus a Rook!
Pair of jays near their previous nest site; m mute swan preening then sleeping in the middle of the lake. (Earlier I saw this swan in full threat-mode, warning a seated, not standing, paddle boarder near the TG bank of the canal by the entrance! The swan was very clear it didn't want the strange water-creature anywhere near its territory! ) Saw a song thrush (twice!) or maybe a pair? foraging in TG for first time in about a year. Later the song thrush was singing loudly. A f mallard was hunkered down very camouflaged, her feathers spread all over her ducklings in the rain; a second f mallard with five ducklings foraging by the reed bed. A heron caught a fish. Saw / heard the usual range of other birds; and Merlin app named two unusual pigeon cooings that I also heard: stock dove (which I also saw) & collared dove (which I didn't), chaffinch, nuthatch, and a (distant) cuckoo!
18/04/25. Saw: 2x goldcrests, long-tailed tits, great tits, blue tits, wren, robin, dunnock, moorhens, mallard, raven, jays, small brown butterfly (skipper?), primroses, lesser celandine, cowslip, butter burr, greater periwinkle, violets, bird cherry, apple blossom, ash, hazel, willow. Heard: blackcap, chiffchaff, blackbird, cetti's warbler, common reed warbler, wood pigeon, stock dove. Very impressed by the scrubby/scruffy areas!
Lots going on in the Reed bed this morning. Reed Warbler singing, female Reed Bunting exploring, Muntjac calling loudly and repeatedly from the Southernmost end.
Good news – for the past three - four days we have been hearing a song thrush singing daily in the Trap Grounds / canal side area early morning and evening and during the day. 🙂
A Long-tailed Tit prospecting for a nest in the willows along the stream.
On 7 April Julie Dyson and a friend reported seeing "a jay; a pair of blackbirds then 2 males chasing each other; various wrens singing very lustily; a heron causing mayhem in the reedbed – sounds of alarmed moorhens; robins; a big bumblebee; blue tits; chiffchaffs calling; jackdaws; a greenfinch; wood pigeons; pair of mallards swimming; 3 mallards careering around in the air chasing each other – the female landed suddenly on the path right in front of us – she looked as surprised as we did!"
heard a song thrush today along the Trap Grounds towpath! First one for ages! Maybe one is moving in to this territory after all...
a jay; a pair of blackbirds then 2 males chasing each other; various wrens singing very lustily; a heron causing mayhem in the reedbed – sounds of alarmed moorhens; robins; a big bumblebee; blue tits; chiffchaffs calling; jackdaws; a greenfinch; wood pigeons; pair of mallards swimming; 3 mallards careering around in the air chasing each other – the female landed suddenly on the path right in front of us – she looked as surprised as we did!
All I can add to Julie's very comprehensive list (below) is a Treecreeper, seen today investigating tree trunks and tree stumps along the boardwalk, presumably looking for a good nesting site.
Today around noon in the bright sunshine: grey sparrow hawk zooming along the stream and over to the Frenchay Rd wildlife corridor/course of the stream-bed; jay; heard Cetti's warbler 3 times; seen &/or heard: wrens, blue tits, long tailed tits, robins, chiffchaffs great tits, jackdaws, chaffinch, m blackbird; pair swans; heron high up in willow over reedbed, pair mallards, pair moorhens, pair dunnocks, 2 or 3 wood pigeons; orange-tip, 3 brimstones; tiny pinkish baby slowworm looking a bit like a slim earthworm; various bees; grey squirrel; bee-fly hovering. Masses of birdsong, but no sight or sound of song thrush – not heard one for at least three weeks along the stretch of the canal by TG / or in TG. (Until last year, 2024, we always heard song thrushes early morning and late dusk every day in Spring to end of summer and often well beyond too. We now never find the previously common signs of cracked and empty snail shells in our canal-side garden opposite the TG. Ditto no sign or sound – for months – of the flock of house sparrows, or of any individual house sparrows, that populated the thicket of bramble that used to grow at the entrance to the TG.)
Correction to my previous entry after looking more closely at my(fuzzy) photo of the beast, not the more common Red Mason Bee, but rather a female Red Tailed Mason Bee Osmia bicolor.
Rather off their normal patch of chalk and limestone, but pretty positive about the identification. Rather cutely, Red Tailed Mason Bees build their nests in old snail shells!
Queen Red Tailed Bumblebee and female Red Mason Bee.