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Llandegfedd Wildlife

Update

Llandegfedd:

A bitter-sweat visit to Llandegfedd, as wildlife sightings are commonly accompanied by wildlife disturbances.
Many firsts for the year, in the form of Large Red Damselflies, Fritillaries, Swallows, Redshank, Lapwing, Common Sandpiper and Little Ringed Plovers.

As you can hear in the recording below, the LRP’s are getting very frisky, song displaying and remarking their territories, but constant disturbance from Dogs and People make it impossible to settle, and eventually they’ll commit to one spot and take a chance, or they’ll simply try and nest somewhere else more suitable. Dog poo bags hanging on tree’s (in no-public access areas), BBQ’s on the ground in the wildflower meadows where there are Adder’s Tongue ferns and plenty of Orchids coming thru. To most people they are just fields but they are so much more. The signage that has been put out by DCWW is so conflicting, there needs to be clear, educational messages and fencing to prevent disturbance. We need to educate people otherwise this will never change. It’s not their fault, they don’t know any better. This is where a Wildlife Educational Officer is needed at Llandegfedd. They have the facilities, they just need to pay somebody with the passion to do it.

Birding

It’s a struggle to fit any ‘serious’ birding in, but a last minute journey to Goldcliff point with Craig Constance to do some sea watching, was well overdue, but came just at the right time as there as been some considerable numbers of Terns, Gulls and Waders migrating into a NE wind. Our count was pretty good for an evening visit, with 59 Comic (Common or Artic) Tern, 19 Bar-tailed Godwits, 1 Fulmar, 50+ Swallow, 9 House Martin, 20+ Sand Martin, Artic Skua (lifer) and the most eventful was the Little Tern(!) passing at just 30m, but that ended up being a total disaster! as I blasted off 30 shots, each appearing to hit the mark in the optical viewfinder, but I looked down with a smile on my face, to find that I had no memory card in camera!! Lol I just about got a card in as it disappeared away in the distance lol. I was happy to still get a record shot though as it was a new bird for me. Bean Goose and White-fronted Goose are still on the Lagoons where I suspect they will stay for a while as they don’t have any adults to follow back to their breeding grounds. Good numbers of Whimbrel flocking in at the

Sound Recording

Plenty of recordings to share, but here are my favourites. I’ve got quite the collection of mimicking bird species now but I’ve got to say, this Blackcap mimicking Mistle Thrush has got to be one of my favourites. Equally, the local Mistle Thrush has a fantastic Lapwing mimic, which I only managed to capture on my pre-record function but it’s on the todo list. Just take a listen to that Blackcap, it repeats the same missile thrush phrase over and over again.

Plenty more Warblers arriving, all these from one trip to Newport Wetlands!

One bird that’s been on my list to record for a while though is a Common Redstart, as they’re often quite hard to approach whilst singing, and most of our local populations are upland, where recording conditions are challenging as it gets quite windy the higher up you get and the less objects you have to hide behind. I had to use an old stone wall / building to get this recording.

Nocmig

Tempted todo a separate blog on Nocmig as so much has happened! Barn Owl, Spotted Flycatcher, Water Rail, Little Grebe, Curlew, LRP’s, Oystercatchers and so much more! Here’s a short video clip of the Barn Owl.

Llandegfedd Rewards

Just when you’re having a bad day, struggling to get out the house and motivated due to health reasons, by which time the day is almost gone but I arrived at the north end of Llandegfedd at 3:30pm, to be rewarded with a fishing Osprey right in front of the car park. I didn’t even need to leave the car park as the bird patrolled the perimeter, giving me several hover flights as he hunted the shallows. Moments later a Red Kite flew into the same air space, and it was nice to see the size comparison between the two species. Kites certainly have the bulk but there didn’t look like there was much in the wing length between the two.

I’ve started to turn my attention to our spring bug life, of which there were plenty on the wing during this short lived heatwave. I clocked 24c in my car! and by next week we’ll be experiencing another cold snap with -1 night-time temps. This weather is truly crazy. If that’s not a sign of global warming in April I don’t know what is.

Good to see my local population of Violet Oil-beetles out in good numbers with over 20 adults and plenty of larvae on the lesser celandines. Andrenna Sp. present but not sure what species, not sure if the picture will show enough of it’s features to identify it to Sp.

Sound

I always make the effort to record Yellowhammer when able, not just because they sound amazing but because I’m hoping I one day record a different dialect. The predominant dialect in Wales is XIB but there are small isolated populations that sing different dialect, which might suggest that those birds originate from a different area, possibly even a different country.

It was nice to see a Female out in the open for a change too, as they usually stay hidden, tucked up in the middle of a Gorse bush. You can see how well her rustic colours blend into the twig colours: making them much harder to spot when they’re sitting on the nest.

Yellowhammer F - SR1A1767.jpg

A few other showy songsters came in the form of a Nuthatch, which is another personal favourite of mine. They have such a rich quality to all of their calls, and they have quite a variety of different song types. This shows two types you’ll likely hear in the spring but it also shows their high pitch squeal call which can catch some people out when heard on its own.

Common species non-the-less, but it’s cool hearing the subtle differences between the Robin’s winter and spring song. Here’s a good example of a spring song, which tends to have more heft behind the lower notes, and less scratchy higher notes.

By far my favourite recording though was of this blackbird, which was at quite the distance away, 20m or so, but thanks to the Schoeps CCM 4 inside the dish, it makes it sound like the microphone is right in-front of it’s bill. I’ve never experienced this level of quality inside a dish before, it honestly sounds like a shotgun recording. Very pleased.

Nocmig

It’s been a mixed bag so far but really please with some of the birds that I’ve got already. Waders are just starting to pour in, with Golden Plover flocks, Curlew, Grey Heron and Little Ringed Plovers, but for me, hearing migrating Blackcap, singing their migratory song, is pretty epic. How on earth these birds navigate the darkness I do not know.

I’m still waiting on confirmation from a few mysteries too, which a probable Bittern and White-front Goose flock, but they’re a bit distant so might have to let those go.

Nocmig

Birding

My first ‘birding’ trip to Llandegfedd this year proved fruitful with a Kittiwake flying in over our heads on the dam wall, continuing on a NW flight path. Not sure if it’s a migrating bird or if it’s been blown off course during the last storm but I presume it’s the latter. There’s so much we don’t yet know about migratory birds, which is why Nocmig recording is quite an exciting activity to take part in. All that community data could really help paint a bigger picture about bird movements and distribution and all this could be achieved from the comfort of your home. So far I’ve only heard a Swallow, I haven’t actually seen one yet but looking forward to it.

One spring migrant I’ve certainly heard plenty of so far is the Chiffchaff. At first I wasn’t sure if it was just the birds that overwintered here that were singing, but I can confirm now on the Gwent Levels that they’re everywhere already! Here’s a recording from Llandegfedd this week.

I love this time of year, as winter migrants start to properly sing and ‘warm up’ to spring, but at the same time, spring migrants are arriving and starting to reclaim territories, so you get this cross-over of sounds from birds that live in totally different worlds to each other. You would have probably heard this by now but if you haven’t, keep a close eye on the Ivy and Holly bushes, especially around open fields of waterways. As the Redwing flock up, they’ll often sing together, creating a wall of sound that sounds way bigger than it actually is. The scratchy sub-song of the Redwing is quite common in winter but it’s less common to get a single bird sing their spring song, which is exactly what you can hear slightly in the recording below. Just a few fluty notes is all it takes.

I’ve recorded quite a lot so I won’t post everything, but here’s a comparison between the song of a Goldcrest and a Firecrest. Other than the fact that they’re both high pitch, they’re quite different when you know what you’re listening out for, so here’s a comparison. That dainty, bouncy rhythm of the Goldcrest is quite distinctive compared to the Firecrests loud-sharp-monotone song, that speeds up towards the end.

I have plenty more new recordings to listen to. I’m really starting to become more proud of the work that I do, and the benefits that it has, not just for my own mental health, but for others than are stuck in isolation, not just because of covid lockdowns but because they’re confined to the house, care home or hospital bed.
Below, probably one of my favourite, as it’s my very own Garden Blackbird that is now gracing me every morning and evening. I’ve commented on the track where mimicry is used.

My local Yellowhammer’s are back on territory and it’s so nice to hear this iconic song again. I can’t imagine the countryside without it. We need more gorse! Hedgerows aren’t enough, we need to protect our gorse patches and not allow farming culture to cut it all down. Even the brecon beacons national park have a lot to answer for, for needlessly cutting down gorse. Cattle can graze around it, and it doesn’t spoilt the view, it enhances it, as a mountain side covered in flowering gorse is a site to behold.

If you haven’t managed to get to your local mountains yet, the moorland soundtrack is in full swing again. Plenty of Skylark and Meadow Pipit displaying. The only sad the about that trip was seeing the amount of destruction done to our protected peat bogs. 4X4 and off-road vehicles have a lot to answer for, not only do they pose a threat to ground nesting birds but the damage they’ve have caused to our nationally important peat bogs is almost irreversible. They think it’s just grass, and that the grass will grow back, but that is not our moorlands work! they aren’t in many ways like ancient woodland, formed over hundreds of years, and once damaged like this, take a very long time to recover. The exposed peat makes the moorland less affective at storing water, which can cause flooding, as that water is no longer being stored and released slowly. It also contributes to global warming, as it makes the peat less affective at storing carbon. I hate seeing this happen on our doorstep but truth is, it’s happening everywhere. It’s good to see the police are starting to tackle this but I do think that off-roaders need somewhere where they can practise their hobby and enjoy themselves without causing damage. Simply educating people isn’t going to be enough.

Some other cool moments for sound were these Carrion Crows, that were in full territorial dispute. At first I thought they were dive bombing a predator, but they were actually dive bombing each other. |f you listen to the start of the recording, you can hear two birds forming a bond with each other by rubbing their bills together.

I’ll hopefully get more opportunities to record Siskin, as I know they can be excellent at mimicking other birds. In this recording you can hear Swallow and Green Woodpecker, but I’ve heard some that are quite elaborate with it.

This Robin actually did a pretty good job at mimicking other birds. I’ve commented a few of the more obvious species on the actual track, check them out.

Nocmig

Right! Now onto the good stuff, as migration is well and truly underway! And like last spring, I have high hopes for something special flying over the house. So far it’s been mixed bags, but last night, despite the northerly winds, I had quite a variety of cool birds.

I won’t upload every recording, but I’ve also had Wigeon, Snipe and good numbers of Moorhen, Coot, Mallard, Redwing and small numbers of Song Thrush too. As we approach April, things should really pick up, as so much starts moving, it’s quite exciting as you never know what you might have flying over your house at night. I’m expecting Common Scoter any day now as they have started moving all across the country but I’m also looking forward to Terns arriving, Spotted Flycatchers and Tree Pipits, which seemed to be a popular one for me last year.

I’ll end with some sleep material and a celebration of my local streams.


Indian Summer

Anything can happen this time of year with the weather but September has become a month not to underestimate, as we have consistently had warm weather creeping in, just when we all had a taste of the autumn in august with wet, windy and cold. Migration has some-what come to a stand-still in the last week, with no waders moving on my nocmig, but it has been replaced with a large movement of Siskin, Meadow Pipit and the odd Chaffinch. Now my Nightjar have left for Africa, I usually turn my attention to the water. Llandegfedd has already produced a few Ospreys on passage, one of which stayed for a week but remained antisocial due to all the boat activity on the reservoir. We were lucky to witness it leaving the reservoir after one last circle of the water in search of a fish and literally the next day, the same bird was picked up at Chew Valley Lake.

It’s now a great time to search for any late summer insects. Wasp Spider females are now at their largest size so they are easier to find and there are plenty of Caterpillar’s around that are fattening up, ready to pupate. In terms of resident birds, the local Raptor population seem to be turning to insects for their main source of food, including Red Kites, that I’ve observed feeding on what looked like large Beetles. This field was full of sheep so it’s likely that the beetles are a variety of dung beetle species that are draw to the fields by the sheep droppings. The coast-line is filling up with waders, with large flocks of Turnstone, Ringed Plover, Sanderling, Dunlin, Oystercatchers and Knot. It’s been a great year so far with waders, mostly around the coastline, with an abundance of Curlew Sandpiper, Pectoral Sandpiper and Little Stint in the country, all of which have been seen at Goldcliff Lagoons in the last two months. I have a group of friends that regularly bird Goldcliff Lagoons, and if you want to see regular updates on the birds seen there. I highly recommend looking at Blair Jones’s blog - https://www.thewildlifeoculus.com/ where he has a very well written, running documentary of Goldcliff Lagoons that’s also packed full of images that paint a vivid picture of the often, action packed lagoons. I also recommend subscribing to John Lawton’ youtube channel - https://www.youtube.com/c/johnluk/videos as John also spends a lot of time on the Gwent Levels and puts a lot of time and effort putting together video clips. Video is another ball-game, you really have to be dedicated as not only does it take up a lot of space on the hard drive, it’s pain-staking to edit footage and cut it up into a presentable form.

I have a lot of images below, some of which have been taken very recently on short trips to the beach at Ogmore-by-sea. All others have been taken in Gwent, with a Great White Egret showing well at Blaenavon Garn Lakes. Wasp Spiders at Marshfield on the Gwent Levels, Osprey at Llandegfedd and the rest, pretty much in my tiny little Garden.

I’ve also been continuing to search for natural textures. I’m planning on using these images as part of a task at In Our Nature CIC. For anybody suffering with mental health issues, it can be an important exercise to make your world smaller. You might find yourself stuck in a closed environment all the time, whether it’s office work or you might be house-bound for health reason, so open spaces can feel a little overwhelming. Focusing less on over-all landscapes, and more on the little details right in-front of you can be a good way to over-come what can otherwise be a sensory overload. The same technique also works for people who take in too much information, in that they’re constantly exposed to open landscapes, where they’re always having to interpret large quantities of information. People who drive long distances tend to suffer from this and it’s often subconsciously so you aren’t even aware of how much information the brain is actually taking in.
We’re subjected to information every single day and we can’t control everything, but we can chose to concentrate on the little things.

Sound

The end of august was quite a windy one so I didn’t do much in terms of sound recording, other than of course this recording below from the comfort of my doorstep. Here you can really hear the depth of the wind storm at was upon us that day.

Since then it’s returned to our Indian Summer, and the water coming thru the inlet at Llandegfedd sounds beautiful.

The bird soundtrack is still very much so Robin dominated now but with the hot weather I have started to hear the odd Dunnock, Blue Tit and Great Tit singing. Next on my list is to get some nice recordings at the beach, the sound of Waves are magic, but I’m saving this for those cold winter days where there won’t be any birds singing.

Nocmig

I haven’t had much on the wader front, as there’s been a low pressure over Scottish seas for a few weeks now, holding those wader flocks back. I have had large numbers of Siskin, Meadow Pit and Grey Wagtails over the house early morning though, with the off Yellow Wagtail in the mix. I’ve just started to get Chaffinch in the morning also but Siskin seem to be dominating the morning migration, with numbers reaching in the hundreds. I’ve had that many recordings I haven’t uploaded any of them yet but here’s one of the closer Yellow Wagtail calls to end this lengthy blog.

Free for all comes at a cost.

Just when I think things are on the up, I get reminded just 8 days into Llandegfedd being back open to public, just how much the site is set on a downwards spiral.. I really hope new management turn things around as the current free-for-all setup is coming at the cost of our environment. I arrived to see Dog’s running around off lead on the island , a site that used to have breeding Lapwing. A fisherman set up very considerately right in front of Bert Hammar Hide, Poo Bags are thrown everywhere, Dog poo everywhere and plenty of litter. Welsh Water has done a lot of work this winter repairing the hides, with new roofs and bin additions, but I’m starting to think that all this encourages is for people to use the hides as picnic areas and not for their intended purpose. Just 8 days in and the bin is overflowing in Green Pool Hide and as a result, bottles, cans and wrappers surround the hide. Green Pool never saw litter prior to the installation of these bins, so I think they need to go. I was also very disappointed to see four silver birches cut down. These birches were planted as part of past conservation efforts and were reaching a good age, but it was deemed a necessary loss as it enabled DCWW to cut the grass with the tractor to save time. Three Boats were fishing right in Green Pool inlet and as a result, flushed what little Teal are left on site. There’s no policing of the site what so ever, which is exactly why these things go totally unnoticed by the rangers. This is what it’s like now, in wet and windy conditions, so you can imagine how bad it gets on sunny weekends during the summer.

Moving onto more positive things, I spent some time with the Macro lens, and I have a ‘thing’ where if I photograph something, I need to find out what it is, which is why I pick and choose what I photograph as it can often lead to a headache, as not all species are identifiable without use of a microscope. I just need to get some decent books. If it wasn’t for this website - https://www.naturespot.org.uk/ - I wouldn’t manage at all at the moment. I bought a Moss book but turns out it’s Arable Garden Mosses only, so not much good for me.
Any recommendations, please let me know! I want to grow my book collection.

Mystery Grasshopper & New Business

It’s wet outside, and despite still working outdoors, I’ve not been able to do much sound recording, so I’ve revisited a few of my old recordings, and in doing so, I’ve listened with a new set of ears. As it would appear that on the 13th of August 2019, the same day I found this beautiful Southern Migrant Hawker, I also recorded this Grasshopper, which I’ve now identified as a Long-winged Cone-head, after much trawling of the internet and research!

At full speed, it sounds quite similar to a Great Green Bush-cricket, which is what got me so excited as they haven’t been recorded that far inland in Wales, and it would have been another first for Llandegfedd. Take a listen below;

Southern Migrant Hawker 13.08.19 Llandegfedd

Slowing the recording down, however, revealed 3 distinct syllables, as opposed to the 2 syllables you typically find in Great Green, so I had to rule that species out. I needed to find a source of online audio files, preferably that were in high enough quality that I could slow down and compare to my own recordings. As despite posting these recordings on designated Othoptera groups, I wasn’t getting much luck!
Unexpectedly the info I needed was found on a BAT website. Which makes a lot of sense because Bat surveyors often pick up grasshoppers and crickets by accident, but so much so that a bat detector has become a good tool for ID’ing orthoptera. Thankfully they listed the frequencies and patterns of enough species for me to identify my grasshopper as a Long-winged Conehead, with 3 syllables in each phrase.

You can see it quite clearly in the sonograph below. It seems obvious now, but I wasn’t aware that Long-winged Cone-heads were able to perform this slow! I’ve certainly not heard any recordings online that sounds remotely the same. Usually, they are much faster, so fast that the individual beats are usually inaudible at real-time. He must have been tired after a long day of performing, as it was getting late in the evening. Goes to show that even species that are usually reliably and easily separated, can throw a curveball every now and again.

All of this has got me even more excited about the year ahead. I’m going to record more species than ever this year. But I’m not just going to do that..I’m also very excited to share a new business venture with you, called ‘In Our Nature Cic’

Wildlife Photography and Sound Recording are just excuses for me to spend more time outdoors for the sake of my own mental health, but also so I can share this experience with other people in the hope it enriches their lives too. I’ve never really felt that I was doing enough to share my experiences with you, but thankfully there are others who share this passion. Veronika Brannovic has worked in the third and public sector for over 20 years, developing and delivering projects that connect people to nature. Together we’re launching our business that aims to improve peoples wellbeing through contact with nature. We aim to do this through various activities but for more information, head over to the website which is almost complete.

‘In Our Nature Cic’

Before the Rain

Spring might have been a wet one, but it’s been great so far this summer for bugs. I usually turn my attention to bugs this time of year as some species have a small window of opportunity before they all disappear again till next year. If you like Grasshoppers and Crickets, it’s worth visiting the north side of Llandegfedd as the meadows are alive with Roesel’s, Dark, Oak & Speckled Bush-crickets, Green, Meadow, Field and Mottled Grasshoppers, Long & Short-winged Coneheads and even Ground Hoppers with more to discover I’m sure.
As you know I like to record the sounds of nature, but as many people cannot hear some species of Grasshopper as they’re too high pitched, I’ve started a project that aims to record as many different species of Grasshopper / Cricket as possible and to slow those recordings down so that you can listen to the finer detail of each and every stroke of the wing cases. It’s not for everyone, but i find stuff like this fascinating as it reveals frequencies that you wouldn’t otherwise hear. Listen back to these insects in slow-motion helps you enter their world for a moment and also highlights how important it is for us to start consider the environmental impact our noise pollution has on species that are dependant on sound in order to reproduce.

I tend not to go anywhere simply for the walk these days, partly because I can’t walk far at the moment as I have gall-stones that are playing havoc, but also because I only walk 2 minutes before spotting something interesting to photograph, record or just appreciate. It doesn’t do anything for my fitness levels this way but I’ve made so much luck this way, slowly walking through the landscape, trying to appreciate everything that I see. If you do this, you’ll be rewarded more and more, and this was evident when I was accompanied by a Stoat that was quite shy, but I would have easily missed it if I was walking with the intent to walk. If you want to see things, you need to slow right down.

Llandegfedd's Perks

Only because I don't work at Llandegfedd anymore, doesn't mean I don't love the place. Despite being open to public, you can still get the North end hides to yourself for the day and it still has some great passage birds, if you can spot them!. Lucky for me I have a friend who's devotion to birding Llandegfedd exceeds the average jo's 'patching' efforts. Craig Constance time's his arrivals in perfect accordance for spring and autumn migrants and to be fair and so far we've had quite the arrangement.. he finds them, and I turn up late and photograph them. Seems fine to me?

I have a few things to thank Craig for this time around though as he also got me my first opportunity to photograph a Purple Hairstreak Butterfly in his Garden that decided in the hot weather that Craig's tropical sun-tan lotion was suitable enough for drinking, as it literally landed on his chest haha. Take em while you can! Usually Purple Hairstreaks stay right up in the canopy of mature oak tree's, and all you usually get is a fleeting glimpse of them chasing each-other as a spec in the sky. This was a first for his Garden that backs up on the same woodland that Peakmans LTD want to carve a new road thru.. I'll say no more. 

In the bunch  below you'll also see a very detailed shot of a Dark Bush Cricket. They remind me of the sound of late summers nights, as they're the only species of Cricket here than continue to chirp throughout the night. Llandegfedd is a great place to hear this spectacle at night but it can also be heard in many other parts of the countryside. 

A 'Twitchy' Day

Those who know me well, know that I'm not your typical birder, attending twitches around the country, clambering over people to get a look in at a rarity. It's not that I wouldn't love to see these birds, but it's the people part that I'm not overly fond of. Yes, it's great to share your passion with others, and it's certainly no bad reflection on those who do like to twitch, but it's just not for me. That said, it was a day of local twitching yesterday, with a very rare visitor at Twmbarlwm mountain in the form of a Snowy Owl!. It was picked up by a local Dog walker, who managed to photograph and video the bird on the peak of the mountain. Quite a few birders turned up once the news got out to search for the bird, but having searched every upland in my local area, we failed to relocate it. That's the way it goes sometimes!. You'd think a big white owl would be easy to find, but with patches of snow still on the uplands and thick moorland reed beds, they are harder to spot than we thought. 

Failing that, I made the effort to look at Craig Constance's rare find at Llandegfedd called a Black-necked Grebe. When he found it in the morning it was showing near the Fish Cages out in the middle of the reservoir, so not many people came out to see it as Llandegfedd can be quite a difficult place to bird, especially when it's a bird as small as a Black-necked Grebe, which is about the same size as a Little Grebe. 

Upon arrival, Craig and I both scanned and I just about managed to pick out a black dot in the choppy waves on the opposite side. We walked all the way to the north end from the visitors centre, both with inappropriate footwear on a very muddy path but it was well worth it as the bird was feeding 10-20 metres out from Green Pool entrance. Hiding behind a hedge low to the ground was enough to get it within reaching distance of a 600mm (300 with 2x). Still a cropping to fill the frame a bit but check this beaut out! Almost in full breeding plumage! Have to thank Craig again for the effort he puts into birding Llandegfedd. Without him, we'd loose a lot of truly great birds there.

An opportunity I cannot miss!

My time as a Seasonal Ranger has come to an end, with my last official day with them just yesterday. But why you say? You love it at Llandegfedd! This is very true, I do love Llandegfedd, and thankfully, my connection to Llandeg goes much deeper than a Job with Welsh Water, and that connection will never end. 

So what's next? Well, I've been offered a Job as a Specialist Wildlife Researcher for Aden Productions to help produce Iolo Williams' next wildlife documentary for the BBC. It's a great opportunity that I simply cannot turn down, and I can't wait to start with them on the 28th of this month. It will mean some extra travelling but it's well worth it, working alongside like-minded people, all of which share my passion for wildlife. I appreciate all the support from friends and family, as though this change is a good change, I still struggle at times like this as my anxiety can sometimes get the better of me. 

Below are four of my favourite pics from Llandeg last year. I'm sure I'll continue to have many more memorable moments at what is such a fabulous place for wildlife.