Ring Ouzels on Cleeve Hill - 13th April 2026

Mark rang me last Friday about taking a trip over the county border into Gloucestershire with Ring Ouzels very much in mind, especially as we had dipped a pair of males on the Oxfordshire Downs at Lark Hill, on a cold and blustery Sunday morning, two weeks ago. 

With both of us having commitments over the coming weekend it was decided we would try our luck on Monday. Our destination was Cleeve Hill, at 330m the highest point in both the Cotswolds and Gloucestershire and situated above the town of Cheltenham, about forty five minutes driving from our homes in West Oxfordshire.

I'll pick you up from yours at eight Mark advised.

On a pleasant Spring morning with the cold wind of the last few days thankfully absent we set forth, charting a familiar course across the Cotswolds, now wryly re-christened the Potswolds due to the appalling state of our roads.

The rural lanes we traverse in our part of the world are now a major hazard to driving and a national scandal but there is little we can do but try and avoid driving into one of the countless potholes and incurring great expense trashing a tyre or even in extreme circumstances, a wheel.We followed a switchback of narrow roads southwest, descending and rising as if on a swelling terrestrial sea, crossing the Cotswolds benign, undulating and unthreatening landscape, now being rapidly transformed from winter brown into vibrant green. We descended the Cotswold escarpment into Cheltenham before ascending the side of Cleeve Hill, driving up yet another cratered narrow lane to its highest point, where a small and very full car park signified we could go no further.

A gate gives access to the wide flat expanse that is the summit of Cleeve Hill and we strode out straight and true across the sward, serenaded by countless Skylarks, although not quite sure where exactly to go. A vague memory of a previous visit suggested we needed to reach the far side of the flat plateau and then descend slightly on the  other side where there was a liberal scattering of golden flowered gorse clumps, hawthorn copses and occasional larger trees.

It was not long before we saw our first Northern Wheatear, a welcome new species for our year list and then, as often happens our eyes picked out several more until we estimated we had seen between eight and ten. Such attractive birds, possessed of a sturdy upright stance and bouncability, full of character and chutzpah, their pale ochre breasts made prominent by the sunlight as they hunted invertebrates in the short green grass.

A small group of Belted Galloway cattle were mooching around, cropping the grass amongst the gorse clumps, the beasts so named because they have a broad white band of fur encircling their rotund middles.

Up to this point there had been little sign of any Ring Ouzels but the sight of what could have easily been mistaken for a Blackbird fleeing into a gorse clump, followed by two others, signified we had found them. 

As ever, shy and ultra wary and never allowing anything remotely like a close approach, they disappeared into the fastness of the gorse, always one frustrating flight ahead as we followed but eventually they flew to perch in small trees, their dark bodies clearly visible amongst the branches or perched on isolated topmost twigs where they could more clearly observe the landscape and presumably us.

They remained as a group, sometimes emitting chuckles of alarm and it became obvious that there were five or possibly six individuals. A good count. Similar in appearance to their close cousin the Blackbird they however have an aura of true wildness about them, far removed from the cosy familiarity of the Blackbird. Not for them the benign confines of suburban gardens and parks but rather they seek the isolation of wild rugged places, where the wind blows across the moor and fell, mountain and stream. Forever wary and fast flying, today they tantalise and enthrall us with fleeting glimpses before slipping away.

Rather than pursue them which always proves pointless and futile we stood close by a clump of gorse and waited and soon enough the perched birds descended to the ground to feed very much in the fashion of a Blackbird.

Ring Ouzels look, to put it simply, very much like our Blackbird but look closer and when seen well both males and females have a prominent and large crescent of white on their breast. In the case of the adult male, pure and unmarked but duller white often sullied brown on the female. Males also show pale edging to their flight feathers which reveals itself as a pale panel on the closed wing. They are longer winged than Blackbirds too which makes sense as they are migrants that come here to breed in elevated areas of northern England and Scotland  and retreat to spend the winter in the mountains of southern Europe and North Africa. I once saw a flock of fifteen in November 2013 at Oukaimeden in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco.

In late March and April they often make a stopover in hilly areas in southern England where they do not breed and feed up before proceeding further north to breed. Cleeve Hill is one of many traditional stopover points in southern England that they use on their migrations. Other traditional locations where I have seen them are Linkey Down in The Chilterns on the border of Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire and The South Downs in Sussex. 

As you can see from my photos, the ouzels on Cleeve Hill remained at the extreme edge of my camera/lens capabilities but one adult male seemed slightly bolder than the rest and rather than fly off with its fellow ouzels chose to continue bouncing around in the coarse grass although still at some distance.

We were entirely on our own at this point and this undoubtedly helped as the disturbance to the birds was minimal and this possibly emboldened two males we found ourselves watching.

Eventually one male flew off but the other remained. We stood stock still and observed him feeding, his prominent white crescent almost gleaming in the sunlight and the pale edging to his flight feathers also noticeable. This was a full male in all his Spring finery and others we saw also looked to be males but at least two were duller, browner and less well marked, possibly being females or younger males.

For ten minutes the male we were looking at continued to feed and even began coming closer and I willed it to keep coming but it suddenly stopped feeding and became alert  with neck extended and head raised and then with a harsh call of alarm flew off. 

Something had troubled it but what?

A voice behind me enquired 

We hope we are not disturbing you. We are not in the way are we? .

A well meaning couple with two dogs had, un-noticed come up behind me and the ouzel on seeing them approaching was immediately on the alert and wary as ever had flown off in the opposite direction

What can you do but contain your inner frustration and smile and say

No that's fine, carry on

The bird had gone anyway. Cleeve Hill is a very popular place with dog walkers but you always hope that its sheer size and expansiveness make it possible that people can find their own space.

We had one final view of the Ring Ouzels which, unknowingly flushed  by another birder flew to an isolated tree and perched as a group. I counted five.

There's another flying to join them Mark added. 

So then there were six Ring Ouzels.

More birders began to arrive, not many but we knew that for the undisturbed hour we had watched the ouzels we had already had the best of times and it would not get any better so we called it a day.

Coffee and cake Mark?

Why not.