The Forest of Dean & Cannop Ponds

 Hi everyone, recently, at the end of August, I went to the Forest of Dean in an attempt to find wild boar. It was the second time I have tried; the first time being in 2020. Unfortunately, like in 2020, we didn't find any. However, in our search across the forest, we did find some other interesting wildlife. Over the course of the next two posts, I will tell the story of our trip to the forest, and the animals we saw. 

We left home around 10am and it took around 4 hours to get a town just west of the forest in Wales called Monmouth. After grabbing some supplies, we headed into the forest. We were camping on the Western part of the forest, in a campsite called Bracelands. The forest is severed in two halves, by several towns going through the centre, most notably Coleford. Bracelands was a nice campsite with good facilities, and if you are ever looking for somewhere to camp in the forest, I would definitely recommend Bracelands. However, there was another reason why we picked Bracelands as the campsite we would stay at. Despite the Western side of the Dean having a smaller population of boar, earlier this year in January the campsite was attacked by a sounder of five individuals. They recked the ground, and at the time it was unsuitable to pitch a tent on and they have had to put boar-proof fences up around the site. However, when we came in late August, the ground was perfect to pitch up on again. 

Once we had got the tent up, we went straight down one of the footpaths into the forest. One of the first things I noticed were bits of upturned ground. These were a sign the the boar had come through this part of the forest. I checked the colour of the roots - if they are white then they are recent; possibly within the last few days. If they are yellow or brown, that means that they could be weeks, months or even years old. Luckily, they were white, meaning that they were recent. However, like I said earlier, we didn't get any footage of boar so don't get your hopes up for any boar footage (I am hoping to go back next year though so we can try again then). However, despite not seeing any boar, we did manage to get loads of great footage of the forest's other residents, so over the next two posts, I will show you some of the amazing footage we got. 

I found a good spot for the camera trap near where the rooting were, in an area which looked like it had been trodden down by some large animal. Over the next few days I checked it and we got one of the forest's other most exciting animals. You will have to wait until the next post before you can find out what they are. After that, we went down several footpaths and I found a wood ant's nest. It was huge, above my waist and it was crawling with ants. Here is a video.

The next day we went somewhere called Cannop Ponds. We walked from Cannop Ponds to a place called Mallards Pike. On the walk there we saw even more ant nests. They were all probably connected via tunnels underground and they were all patched together.

Once we arrived at Mallards Pike, we saw a small flock of Mandarin Ducks. It was the end of August so most of the males were in or going into an eclipse, where their plumage isn't as colourful as in the breeding season. They start to look a bit more like female ducks. 

We got back to Cannop Ponds and unfortunately hadn't seen any boar. Once we were back I walked around Cannop Ponds. I saw another flock of Mandarins which swam away for cover under the trees. The first thing which caught my eye were two cormorants.

After that, I saw my first ever sighting of a little grebe.

The next day we walked from Bracelands to Symonds Yat. It was a nice village, and we took a 'hand ferry' over the Rive Wyre to get some lunch. After that, we walked up a huge hill (which we nicknamed from the last time we went to the Dean in 2020 'the hill of doom') and to Symonds Yat view. Here's a video from the view. 

Sadly, we would have to leave the next day. Once we woke up, I went to get the camera trap. We didn't get any boar, but what we did get was almost as exciting. Stay tuned for the next post to find out what we got on the camera trap! Remember to leave a comment and thanks for reading!