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Summer Catchup

Think it’s probably time I posted some more images! As always it’s been a very busy year. Working on multiple sights across Wales, bird surveys, raptor surveys, ontop of Dusk Bat surveys, so my Nightjar time this year has been limited. Currently trying to fight thru some health issues also, looking forward to getting some results back from the Doctors after bloods this week. I’ve been using the R5 extensively and recently swapped out my Canon 400 DO ii with the 300 2.8 ii, as despite the fact that the DO was a superb lens, it was missing contrast and most importantly, had some weird ‘bokeh’ which rendered the foreground and background pretty distracting in certain scenarios. It’s a shame, as the lens was super sharp and I will miss it. Once I got the 300 back I was instantly reminded about the contrast and the smooth bokeh. It put me right back to being inspired again, as there’s nothing worse than putting in all the effort, and not getting the results you envisioned. The 300 also has a very ‘collectable’ image, especially wide open, where the colours are some what muted and there is a slight vignette. You see this is some of my images below, like the Nightjar shots and the Fern. They appear dark, some would say even under exposed but this is something I couldn’t even do with the 400 as it didn’t have as good dynamic range. Odd to even use that phrase in a lens but it’s true, each lense renders shadows and highlights differently and with this 300 2.8 you get the best available to modern day optics. Talking about Optics, I’m going to write a review soon on the new Swarovski NL Pure 10x42’s in comparison to my older Gen 1 EL’s. Will explain all in the next post! For now, here’s a collection of my favourite images of the summer, mostly with the macro lens in the Garden! As i’ve been far too busy for proper photography shoots this year. One thing I hope you’ll notice is how vibrant the colours are from the R5, which overall I’m finding has a much more accurate white balance straight out of the camera than the R6 did, which always seemed to be on the warm side.

Summer Sound

Lots to share, lots to talk about as always. Blogging for an entire month is proving to be difficult but I’ll give it a shot!! Below I’ll start with a mixture of photographs from various places, but most of which were taken at Tirpentwys Nature Reserve. Not only did I find Bee Orchids in flower this year but there happens to be a spectacular show of Common Spotted, Southern Marsh (Also hybrids between the two), but also hundreds of Pyramidal Orchids! I’ve never seen such a show before, it’s really worth going to see. At the reserve I also had a Hobby, Crossbill, Greenfinch, Redpoll and a good number of migrating Swifts overhead.

Sound Recording

It’s been a good month for sound recording but things are starting to taper off now. Less and less birds in the dawn chorus already, with some mornings just a lone Song Thrush. It’s just that time of year where most of the breeding birds are done, and only the birds pushing into a second or third clutches are continuing to hold territories. It’s not over yet though and I’ll be lapping up as much of it as I can before the autumn arrives!

For our Nightjar though things have just reached peak, with some birds feeding chicks, others still on eggs, some may not have even laid yet! It’s really been an odd year for Nightjar and as a result, I’ve decided this year to concentrate my efforts on a variety of different locations as my local birds have really not had a good year so far this year and they’ve also chosen to nest quite close to a Goshawk nest so I’m avoiding the area for a number of reasons and visiting only at night.

Ok, kicking this off with a Nightjar recording, one of many this season but by far my favourite, as it shows three different calls, starting with a Male alarm call, which is softer than the female, followed by a stellar performance, and ending with his female flying thru his airspace, which resulted in him restarting the song, just so he could end with his spectacular showboating clapping performance. Then you can hear the lower pitched croak from the female, followed by the higher pitched fluty call of the male. It’s a great reference recording of the variety of sounds that Nightjar can produce.

Almost every night now I’m hearing Tawny Owl chicks and couldn’t resist recording them last night.

Grasshopper season is well underway and I look forward to hearing my first electric Roesel’s Bush Crickets. As usual though, I’ve slowed this recording down so the pitch sits in a more audible range as they can be quite difficult to hear.

The Roesel’s Bush Crickets were at the north end of Llandegfedd, and singing also was a stunning Reed Bunting, which didn’t breed there last year so it was nice to hear him back on territory. Onsite also was a good number of Common Sandpiper, which are just finishing up breeding, so are already starting to move south.

As I said, there isn’t much singing now, but Blackcaps seem to be still giving it a good effort.

I was going to devote an entire blog to this Chaffinch song, as the first three phrases appear to be quite unique, at-least they do to my ears. This was from one of my work places in Swansea, where the entire upland population there, seem to emphasise the middle section of the song, with these defined descending notes, that sound very similar to the tune of a Redwing Song. You can hear three different types of phrases in this performance but it’s the first three that I’m referring to. This tune is very similar to that found in other sub-species of Chaffinch from around the world, so it makes me wonder if this phrase goes way back to a time before the species split, as even the endemic species in the canary islands seem to have this. My local population however, doesn’t have this at all, so it makes me wonder how much of a regional accent is at play here.

Here’s a screenshot of the section I’m referring to. The left phrase shows the descending notes that really have emphasis over the rest of the phrase and the second phrase is the more typical monotone middle trill that I’m used to hearing in my local area.

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Nocmig

Nocmig is starting to pick up again! and it kicked off with my first ever Quail! Was a beauty! Since then I’ve had my first Redshank of the post-breeding movement, along with Common Sandpiper, Little Ringed Plover, Oystercatcher and plenty of Moorhen / Coot. Other than that I’ve been getting more and more Swifts moving on ‘morn-mig’ and I intend on upping my game this autumn, as I’ve purchase two second hand ‘Audiomoths’ which are small remote, programable sound devices that are fully waterproof and capable of automaticity recording dusk till dawn, which is perfect for nocturnal migration and due to their small size, it makes them so easy to hide. I also intend on using them to aid my Nightjar research as I can identify new sites by places these devices in key areas, without having to spend multiple nights out in the field to find out for myself. It really increases my chances as you can’t be everywhere at the same time.

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.

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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.

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.

End of a Season

The picture you see below, will likely be the last of the season, as my last nest has sadly been predated. Over-all the season was a success, with all my other pairs successfully fledging two chicks each. That is a great year for these birds that don’t have a very high success rate. I suspect the failure of this particular pair was down to a Tawny Owl, that was very persistent throughout the night, doing low flights right over the nest site. I was surprised after a nocturnal session how many males were still churring last week, but I suspect it was more of a ‘goodbye’ churr, cuing to the females that the time has come, because the following days, all of my roost sites were un-occupied and I found this female miles from her nest, roosting in a tree. It’s probably a welcomed changed after sitting in mud and poo for most of the season.

Here’s a short clip of the pair seeing off a hunting Tawny Owl:

Midnight used this log roost almost every single day as it was close enough to the nest that he could keep an eye. Not all males will do this, but it made sense for him todo this the second time around, as the first clutch failed. Two sets of eyes are better than one. I only located one of the fledglings, so it’s likely that they’ve left the clear-fell now and headed to more suitable feeding grounds ready to migrate for the first time to Africa. It always amazes me how chicks know where to go..

I’ve done so much travelling between work and random birding trips since my last blog, so I won’t bore you with all the details. Here’s a selection below that highlights my favourite moments, most of which were on the Gwent Levels but some, like the Southern Dune Tiger Beetle were from the Gower. Small Red-eyed Damselflies were numerous at the reen entrance to Goldcliff Lagoons which was nice, as I’ve never seen one officially before. Lesser Marsh Grasshoppers seem to be turning up everywhere on the Levels now I know what I’m looking for. Their sound is actually quite similar to Field Grasshopper but the notes are spaced differently. You can hear it better when slowed down so I’ve including a recording below.

Sound


Below are some targeted flock recordings from Goldcliff Lagoons on a nocturnal visit. It’s quite difficult to get one of the platforms to yourself at high tide with so many visitors, especially this time of year where it becomes more popular due to arriving migrants, so I visited after dark, on a late high tide. There were still quite a few birds feeding in the dimming light, but even after dark, simply moving the dish around you can target specific species. It’s great hearing such a variety of waders in one place, with the added sounds of Shelduck, Little Egret and Greylag Geese in the background. It’s also been beneficial to me, to see different variations of calls on the spectrograph, from wader species, as it helps me ID some of the more unusual calls you get on Nocmig recordings.

Nocmig

What a turn out so far! In my last blog I spoke of how autumn migration has well and truly began, and whilst everyone knows this, I didn’t expect to get all these species over the house already! Wood Sandpiper was on my wish-list and it didn’t take long to get one! I had a Wood Sand long before I had a Green Sandpiper, which goes to show it’s not all about how common the species is, you really could end up with anything on these recordings, regardless of where you live.

Below I put together a selection of different calls, all of which I had within one night, just so you can see the visual differences side by side.

Here’s a few more species, all dated accordingly, but I’ve also had quite a few Dunlin, Ringed Plover, Whimbrel, Crossbill, Swifts, House Martin, Swallow, Oystercatcher, Moorhen, Grey Heron, Coot, Spotted Flycatcher and many unknown smaller birds that are going to take a while to ID.

I’ll leave the blog with a Robin recording, which seems to be taking over at the moment.

Weird and Wonderful

Photo

Breeding season is by far the busiest time of year for me. I wish my body could just run on nothing so that I could spend every second I could outdoors, but with nothing booked in today and a nice red ‘binocular strap’ sunburn on the back of my neck, I spend the day indoors to catch up on invoicing and general admin work. This also gives me the time to write this blog and catch you up on the weird and wonderful things I’ve been seeing on my surveys or in my garden. Caterpillars can be quite challenging to ID and I’ve photographed a few lately that remain un-identified. Usually the moths are the hardest as there are quite a few that are very similar looking, and there’s just so many of them!. I found my first Western Bee-fly which is a nationally scarce Bee-fly that appears to be quite numerous this year. I found another case of ‘Zombie Fungus’ which is a very strange phenomenon where a fly picks up spores on its skin, that burrow into their body to develop and once developed enough, will induce a chemical that takes over the flies brain! The fly then is possessed by the fungus, that causes it to climb a tall plant (called summiting), from which it is then forced to secrete a glue like substance from its mouth. Only then will the fungus kill the fly by locking up all its joints and limbs, so the wings point to the sky and their legs lock onto the stem. It’s at this stage that the fungus can use all of the flies nutrients, growing out from the body and releasing spores into the air, ready for the cycle to start all over again. It’s literally the thing of nightmares! The Bagworm Moth Larvae was also a good reminder of natures architectural genius, as the larvae uses sticks or reeds of a certain quality to build a safe home that’s completely unappealing to any predator looking to eat them. Some of the shapes they build, truly are incredible. Take a look here for some examples on google.

It’s been a whole year since I found my first roosting Nightjar. It was a special moment after many years of research, as yomping around breeding habitat with no experience is just out of the question. If you think you can just rock up and expect to find one roosting in the day, you’ll go home very disappointed. There’s a reason why these birds are so successful. If you flush one in an attempt to find one, you WILL NOT see them again, as they won’t roost there again. Everybody I’ve met who study Nightjar, do so because they have the utmost enthusiasm and passion for the species and it’s safe to say, I’m in it for life. On that note, below is that very first Nightjar I found in may 2019, which happened to be a female who favoured tree stumps. The females are taking a while to come back this year, but it was even more special that my first Nightjar of 2020 was that exact same female, using her favourite tree stumps again. The more you learn about these birds, the more you realise that they are just individuals, with their individual preferences in life, just like us.

As she had just turned up the night before, she’s already being pestered by the local Males and this isn’t the same Male she paired up with last year, but he was roosting 2 meters away from her, just so he knows where she is once it gets dark enough, so they can continue ‘business’. I hope they have a good year this year, for some reason many females are yet to return, so the Males are a bit lost at present.

Male Nightjar

Sound

Back to sound! (Here’s where most people bow out). Recording mammals can be quite difficult as they’re not always vocal. I’ve had numerous encounters with Weasels for instance and till today I’ve never heard one before! I presume it has a nest somewhere. I couldn’t even see the blighter but this sound was unmistakable.

The same night I had an encounter with two Tawny Owls, that were making all sorts of weird sounds, but recorded here at the typical Kivvik sounds. You may even have one near you? With this hot weather, now’s a good time to listen in bed with the window wide open.

I’ve also added another birdsong to my video list. The Chaffinch is Britain’s most common finch, but till now I’ve not really appreciated it enough. I’m sure their success has everything todo with that powerful bill, which is very versatile in what it can achieve. Their song might be repetitive but listen with a good pair of headphones and the tone is just stunning. It has a well-rounded tone but with really crisp articulation. That and it’s very loud!

Nocmig

Not much to report on the nocturnal migration recordings but I did get a wave of flycatcher like calls that I need to ID. They must be Spotted Flycatchers this time of year but I don’t think the recordings are detailed enough to rule out Pied Flycatcher.

And finally, something to laugh about. I had lots of messages last night, congratulating me on getting one of my images onto the Springwatch program lol. Which was news to me, as I can’t ever remember being asked for permission to use any of my images, so I was a little angry at first.. but then I found out it was Iolo Williams that presented it, so I’ll let him off beings he’s Welsh, and of course, I remembered I added the picture to Springwatches Flickr group, which does state they’re allowed to use any images added to the group for the program, so long as they credit the photographer, which they did. It’s a shame now though everybody thinks there’s a bird called Gavin Vella!! Could have been a worse bird though lets be fair :)

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Here’s the original image for you to enjoy :) Taken under license in 2019.

Catch Up

Garden

Those that are friends with me on Facebook will know that I haven’t been well for the past 2 weeks with Covid symptoms. I still haven’t been tested but the Doctor was convinced I had Covid-19 as I was very ill and all symptoms were textbook, with Fever, body pain, kidney problems, migraines and of course, a terrible dry cough. To cut a long and painful story short, I am so much better now, thanks to the wonders of modern medicine. Whilst doctors say antibiotics don’t work for viruses, the hospital said that Doxycycline has been responding well with covid-19 and a strong dose certainly seemed to help me as I usually struggle with chest infections anyway. Never have I experienced such a fever before, shaking all night long with temps between 37.5-38.8. Please be prepared, the shortness of breath is no joke, it was quite a frightening experience, but I got thru it! We’ve followed all guidelines set out by the government RE self-isolation and thanks to loved ones we’ve been well looked after. Happy to report I’m back on form, as you’ll tell by the number of bugs I found in the Garden these last two days. I’ve done my best to ID them but naturally have to run them by Liam Olds and Mike Kilner to be sure. This time last year I was totally new to Bee’s so was happy to ID quite a few in the Garden, which proves I’m learning. Just add a few species to your list each year and you’ll be surprised how quickly you can pick these up.

Forest of Dean

Whilst I’ve had time on my hands, I had a look thru some old files from earlier on in the spring. I spent a lot of time in the Forest of Dean in search of drummer Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers to add to my sound recording catalogue and even though I failed, I did find some characters along the way. Wild Boar are incredible creatures, so intelligent and play such a vital role in the forest. They truly belong in the Forest of Dean and I couldn’t imagine them not being there. Just seeing the habitat they’ve created in some of the dense forestry is enough to make you realise their importance. Watching the humbugs playing, feeding and sleeping is a joyous experience that I’ll carry with me forever. As the light faded she gathered nesting material for the night and the little humbugs joined in! bringing small piles of bracken over, even if it was in the wrong place. They really do learn from a very young age. Below the photos I have a short sound recording of the humbugs begging mother for a feed, much to her disapproval.

Nocmig

I stopped recording overnight during my ill period but I’ve just started back up, and this time sporting my shotgun microphone as I wanted to be able to capture the rarer species with a little more clarity to share with you. For recording purposes you really don’t need anything expensive, just a handheld recorder will do the trick, but the files aren’t that pleasing to listen to, as you’ll know from my last blogs.

Over the last couple of days, I’ve added a few new species to the Garden list, with Common Sandpiper, Little Ringed Plover and Golden Plover being my favourite so far. I’ve added one more Water Rail too, this time a little closer to the mic. The recordings will still sound quiet, but they’re perfectly viewable on the spectrograph which is all you really need to ID them.
Listening back to some without decent headphones on, you may not even hear them, but they are there.

There isn’t a whole lot of resources online to ID nocturnal flight calls but that is changing as time goes on and more people are starting to join in. It’s a great way to kill a few hours in the morning and I’ve learned so much already. I mean who would have thought I would get Oystercatcher, Common Scoter, Golden Plover, Water Rail, Curlew and Little Ringed Plover over Sebastopol! Every single night I get Moorhen, Coot and plenty of unknown wing beats that I need to ID, but it’s possible to even Id those if you study them hard enough. I’ve also learned more about Tawny Owls in this process and how many different sounds they actually make. I’ve lost track of the amounts of times I’ve heard this call:

I thought this call was unique to my local tawny, as I have recorded a Tawny here before that sounded like it had some vocal trouble. You might remember from last year? Here’s a reminder below. Turns out though that this call is just a contact call, and this was proven to me by Craig Constance who also picked up the same type of call from his local Tawny Owl last night.

All in all, I’m starting to enjoy this nocturnal migration recording. Not only is it giving me something to do during this period of isolation but I’m learning something new every day. I’ll leave you with a picture from 2017 of an unforgettable experience with three juvenile Ospreys, one of which was born in Scotland and the other two who’s origin will remain a mystery due to no rings. I worked at Llandegfedd at the time so learned their every move, from favoured feeding perches, roost perches and their general routine. I’ve been recording Osprey movements at Llandegfedd for over 10 years, as you’ll see in past blogs. I’ve accumulated quite a list of ringed birds, most of which have been from Scotland. I continue to play an active role with ongoing communications with Welsh Water so we can one day erect a nesting platform once a suitable location is found. This year should be a great year for our Ospreys as the lockdown ensures our large lakes have less disturbance from tourism and boat activity. The same will apply to many shy breeders.

Spring has already arrived!

Frankly, signs of spring are long behind us. Spring is here! Insects that usually hatch in April and May are already on the wing and plenty of leaves and flowers are spouting in what ended up being a very mild day today. I haven’t ventured to any ponds yet but I’m sure frogs are spawning all over the country already and that for me, is the beginning of spring. Below’s selection of ferns, mosses and lichens came from a single spot in Llanover which I return to regularly throughout the year as it’s a beautiful place to lose one’s thoughts.
Plenty of spring hatching Caddisfly Larvae and Stoneflies on the wing which I’m sure the bird population are already making the most of. Below you’ll notice a Hart’s-tongue Fern that splits into two! I’ve never seen this before but despite it not being common, it has been noted by other naturalists. Some have called it a ‘Forked Hart’s-tongue Fern or a Split Crested Hart’s Tongue Fern. Whatever this is called, it looks cool!!
I have some other mosses and lichens that I need to look. I could do with a better book! Nice to see some flowers blooming in the form of Snow Drops, Wild Crocus’ and Red Campions.

My last blog was all about sound recording and I know many people don’t like to listen to things without some visual stimulant. We need to learn how to shut our eyes though, so feel free to put your headphones on and close your eyes on this one, it’s only an iPhone video to set the atmosphere.

Dragon's Continued

I know insects aren’t everybody’s cup of tea, but the way I see it, I have all winter to concentrate on Birds and Mammals and these guys aren’t going to be around for much longer. I was reminded how short this period was during my pursuit to increase the dragonfly species count at The Canyon this year. I’ve noticed that there weren’t any Chasers or Skimmers present when there is usually several buzzing around the lake on a hot sunny day like today. I was reminded on Twitter though, that the season for these types of Dragonfly have already passed and most of the adults have reproduced and have since perished during August. It’s such a short life for a Dragonfly and they all have slightly different peak emergence times throughout the year, which makes a lot of sense from a survival perspective, as this way, they aren’t competing for the same food supplies. Black Darters emerge rather late in the year in comparison to other Darter species, so thankfully there are lots around. 10+ Males are 3 females were spotted in the last two days, which is more than I’ve ever seen at the canyon.

Black Darter Pair - Left Male | Right Female

I’ve known of a couple sites in Ebbw Vale for a while now that holds a rarer hawker species called a Brown Hawker. I’ve been meaning to make a visit myself and was given an extra push after a tweet from Lee Gregory who reported 2 Brown Hawkers at Waun-y-Pound ponds. As the weather was good and I had a meeting in Ebbw Vale, I went straight over there and connected with 2 Brown Hawkers almost instantly upon arriving at the middle pond. I didn’t realise they were so big! I watched one catch a mating pair of Common Darters and it actually ate them both! What a monster! I couldn’t get a great pic but the one I did get shows just how camouflaged they are and also the habitat they chose to roost in which is primarily heather patches.

Brown Hawker

Brown Hawker

Here’s a Southern Hawker, Painted Lady Butterfly and some more of a very obliging male Black Darter.

A Rare Day

The Canyon - Terpentwys

A sunny day and I aimed to have a ‘dragonfly’ day at a place called The Canyon, which has a number of cool species like Keeled Skimmer and Black Darter that I like to find each year. Having got there however, the wind was so high, I wasn’t even seeing any butterflies on the wing, so on the way back down the mountain, I picked up good friend Craig Constance and we headed to Llandegfedd to salvage the day. We didn’t have much to report on the bird front but Craig spotted his regular Yellow Legged Gull which was good for me as I could finally get a decent view of a full adult bird right next to both Lesser Black-backed and Herring Gull for reference. I must admit, I’ve always shied away from identifying Gulls like Yellow-legged in the field as I’ve not been confident with the features but I certainly feel more confident now. Our last stop before heading home and we popped into Green Pool hide, which in all fairness, we never do these days as it’s usually overgrown but Welsh Water has cleared a nice channel through the reeds and just as well! as the Dragonfly we had been watching for a while in-front of the hide, ended up being a mega!

We had a male Emperor Dragonfly and quite a few Common Darters on the water but we had two Hawkers coming in close but there was so much blue on the one, it honestly looked like a small emperor at first glance. I said to craig at this point, “you know, there is a really rare dragonfly called the ‘blue eyed’ or ‘Southern Migrant Hawker’… from which seconds later the hawker landed right in-front of the hide and I went completely red in the face in shock. As soon as I saw the thin black lines in the thorax and those bright blue eyes, I went into complete panic mode, trying to get a photograph and my battery died!!! Spares of which were in my car! #schoolboyerror. Craig instantly called Lee Gregory who is an all-round naturalist with great species knowledge and he arrived shortly after I got back to the hide with some spare batteries. At this point I still hadn’t got a picture to confirm the ID! Thankfully it returned right in-front of the hide as Lee got there and the first picture had me dancing like a little kid. Lee Gregory instantly knew that this could be a first record for Wales and today it was confirmed that this is the first confirmed sighting for Gwent and Wales, so this would be my second ‘1st’ for Wales this year. This doesn’t happen very often, not for me anyway.

The Southern Migrant Hawker is a vagrant that’s apparently trying to colonise the Uk from southern Europe and more Mediterranean habitats. It’s been spotted mostly in southern and eastern parts of England but sightings in Wales have been very minimal. To have the first confirmed sighting is nice but honestly I was just glad that I knew what it was as we both could have quite easily walked away without giving it a second glance. The first four pics below are of the Southern Migrant Hawker, showing vibrant blue eyes, blue on the thorax with those thin black lines through the yellow which you wouldn’t see on an Emperor which is of similar colours. It is quite a bit smaller than an emperor but in flight, sizer can be difficult to judge.

I’ve started a project to record as many species of Grasshopper as I can, and in a high sample rate so that I can lower the pitch and slow the recording down so that everyone can appreciate the quality. I thought it was probably wise that I make the most of my ability to actually hear them as one day I’m sure I’ll lose that end of the frequency spectrum and I won’t even know where to point the mic! In lowering the pitch, I hope that everyone can enjoy the variety of sounds we have in our countryside. I used to be able to hear some species of Bats when I was a kid. If I knew how much i’d miss that when I was older, I would have done it more often.