Good news! The great grey shrike is back at Mallards Pike. This rare winter visitor to the Forest of Dean has been seen back in the area where it spent over four months last winter. Of course it couldn't be proved that it is the same bird but as it is such an uncommon migrant to our area it would be a mighty coincidence for another to come to exactly the same place.

If you park at Mallards Pike, cross over between the two lakes and then follow the power line that runs northwards you come into a series of open spaces and the shrike stayed around there last year. I remember seeing it in a patch of scrubby birch near, I think, the 14th power line post counting from the lakes.

If the shrike is about you should see it easily because it perches at the top of trees and bushes in full view. It is the size of a blackbird but looks bigger because it perches in a very upright way and its colouring is conspicuous, white blow, pearl grey on top and with black wings, tail and face mask.

Although it breeds throughout Europe, Asia, America and into the north of Africa it has never been recorded nesting in Britain and we only see it as a very local winter visitor mainly to the east coast. Who knows, perhaps the scrub near Mallards Pike resembles the bird's nesting place in some northern birch forest and it just feels at home there.

Even if the shrike is not about the area is a grand one for a bird watching walk. If you are not familiar with that part of the Forest you can follow the Adidas running trail that starts at Mallards Pike. The full trail is three miles but a short cut takes you back to the car-park in two miles (running isn't compulsory!) and it is an excellent way to explore the valley.

A bird you are very likely to see at the moment is a crossbill. There has been quite an invasion of them into the Forest in the last month and small groups of 10-20 seem to be everywhere. Their call is very distinctive, a loud and repetitive 'Tchoop, tchoop, tchoop.'

Crossbills feed on the seeds of conifer trees and you usually see them at the top of larch, Norway spruce or Douglas fir trees in the Forest often hanging acrobatically from the branches or the fir cones as they use their crossed bills to prise out the seeds from the cones.

If you get a good view of them crossbills are most exotic looking birds. They all have black wings and tails but the body colour is brown in young birds, green and yellow in the females and bright red in the males. A few years ago at New Fancy, not far from Mallards Pike, someone spotted a very rare two barred crossbill, like a normal one but with two broad white wing bars. But I haven't heard of one being see this year – yet.

Another bird that turns up near Mallards Pike in the open areas, especially during the winter, is the stonechat. We never have many nesting stonechats in the Forest, usually only three or four pairs on heathy places, but for some reason this year we didn't seem to have any. However I have heard that a pair have been seen this autumn back at Tidenham Chase so it is worth watching for them returning to Mallards Pike. It is another bird that perches prominently but it is tiny, smaller than a sparrow. It gets its name from its call, a hard 'tac' that sounds like two stones being tapped together.

Add to the chance of seeing these uncommon birds the fact that the open nature of the woodland between Mallards Pike and Lightmoor makes it a great place to watch for the larger birds such as raven, buzzard, sparrowhawk, kestrel and goshawk as they sail over and you can see it's a birding site well worth a visit on a winter's day.