So many images to post up but not enough time! Here's a few from this evenings short visit after work to Newport Wetlands. Was nice to see a Male Marsh Harrier hunting the reed beds around the lighthouse and today I also saw my first Otter and Magor Marsh. Female Pied Flycatcher was taken yesterday just off the Canal in Goytre- 1 of many more to come this year I hope!
Only a short walk today but lots to see! Pied Flycatcher, Redstart and Whinchat have all arrived back on their breeding grounds and I'm looking forward to spending a bit more time with these.
Wood Warbler was also heard today and thats another bird on my sound recording list. These pictures were from today but all heavily cropped so put them in one photo.
I explored a new woodland today called Priory Wood which ended up being a lovely walk. Not much to report from there species wise but was greeted by a lovely bellowing Blackcap which I managed to record below.
Not had the time for editing lately so playing a bit of catch up here. Last weekend I spent the morning wondering from the Gwent Levels right up into the Valleys of Pontypool and both on this glorious Saturday brought some great birding with the great company of Paul Joy. In the hope to listen to our first years Grasshopper Warblers, we ended up with a very different, but equally interest mix of species throughout the day. Highlight for me was seeing Gwents first Hobby flying North hitting the first mountain it found in the Valleys on the southern peak of the Brecon Beacons National Park above Pontypool. Below you'll see a female Linnet which was frequently attending to her already hatched chicks. Nice to see so many Greenfinches at Newport Wetlands, this is a bird that I don't get to see much of in Pontypool anymore. Another great find in the form of a Spider this time which is called a 'Furrow Orbweaver Spider' which I presume is common on the wetlands given the perfect habitat for this species. They use the Reeds to funnel themselves a perfectly camouflaged nest. Last but not least for the day was a picture of a beautiful Male Pheasant glistening in the sun with the punchy vibrant colours you would expect to see in the tropics.
Looks like a Bee but is in-fact a fly, hence the name 'Beefly'. They are fairly common in early spring and frequent visitors to Gardens so well worth looking out for these as they perch themselves on warm plantation late in the evening to warm up. They like to hover and may even hover long enough for you to get a photograph in flight which I have managed in the past. This species is called a 'Dark-edged Beefly' which is easily identifiable by the dark edges on the outer wings. As you can see, they are great pollinators with this subject below covered in pollen.
With temperatures rising this Spring we're starting to see lots of emerging insects, including several species of lepidoptera. Llandegfedd is a good spot for Butterflies in spring and summer due to its ancient mature meadows that provide a good variety of plant life to support them right up as far as October/November and as early as February/March. If you know anything about Butterflies though, some require very specific plants to survive and only emerge during the periods of which those plants exist. 1 species comes to mind which can be found in small numbers already at Llandegfedd and that is the Orange-tip Butterfly. Below is a picture of a Comma Butterfly which was posing rather well for me but below that is the food plant of the Orange-tip Butterfly, the plant is called 'Ladies Smock' but also known as the Cuckoo Flower.
More of these plants are starting to flower so we should start to see clouds of Orang-tips for the next couple weeks before they start dying off.
There is another plant that grows on the banks of Llandegfedd that is a very specialist plant and only grows in ancient diverse meadows and particularly likes sandy soil and that is the Adders-tongue Fern. Till today, I'd never actually managed to find these plants but now I've found one, I'm starting to see them everywhere at Llandegfedd. They are beautifully delicate looking and so easy to mistake for a random leaf in a field. Having these present shows that we have good healthy numbers of Spotted-Orchids in the northern meadows of Llandegfedd and in a few weeks, you'll see that for your own eyes. It's a shame however that Welsh Water and the people sat behind their desk jotting down numbers don't see the importance of these Wild Flower Meadows because they've recently signed up for a running and biking event which includes churning up these priceless meadows that won't recover once overly-disturbed. Signs of 'buffering' are already prevalent since the opening of the site in April 2015 which has seen many of the paths expanding into the meadows getting wider and wider as time goes on and thousands more people walk thru an un-marked, un-protected Wild Flower Meadow.
Some good news after that depressing last chapter.. This Reed Warbler has been coming back for as many years as I've been visiting Llandegfedd. How do I know this? well, despite it having a leg ring, I can actually tell by its song. Reed Warblers are known for their ability to Mimic and the way in which they use this mimicry is very individualistic, to the point where you can learn an individuals phrasing. Even with a song as complicated as a Reed Warbler (fast and trilly) you can pick out key features with a musically trained ear (which I'm lucky to have). The same can be said about my local Blackbird which I know has been present for many years because he has learned to mimic the sound of my next-door neighbours whistling and using this tune regularly in his song phrasing.
This Reed Warbler however does have a Ring so it will be interesting to find out whether my theory is true. Confirmation of this will be to find out if this Bird was ringed at Llandegfedd. I'll keep you up to date if I find out any news on this.
I'll leave you with something a little cuter but slightly sad in story. A mother Mallard abandoned her 7 chicks after being flushed in the car park while leading her chicks to the water. In doing so she then got pestered by 3 male Mallards that chased her far away from her chicks and rather than staying together they all split up into the woods. Theres no guaranty that any of them will survive but I did manage to catch 3 and bring them back to the waters edge where Mum will have a better chance of finding them. I know Mallards are common but I hope they did survive. They were very tempting to take home... but this is nature and sometimes it's better to just let things unfold, despite the bad outcome for the chicks.
I have lots of favourite birds but having done a little study on these, I have a little more appreciation for this 'simplistic' song and lifestyle of these hardy birds. The name 'chiff-chaff' implies that the bird has 2 distinct notes when it sings, and listening to the bird singing, you would assume that this was right yes? well, not quite, as the bird actually uses 3 notes, sometimes even 4 or 5 depending on the birds repertoire. They use very little notes and manage to switch those notes up so much that they never repeat the same sequence in the same bout. Quite impressive actually..
Please take the time to listen with a good pair of headphones (if you have a pair of course). Sound Quality doesn't get much better than this. It's a short recording of an evening chorus on my local moorland/woodland which was painted with the passing by of off-road bikers. Something that we're getting a lot more of lately. A group of 20 Bikers travelled from London just to rip up OUR local moorland... Very frustrating.
In other news, it was nice to see 3 Oystercatchers stopping off this evening for a rest during their spring Migration to their breeding grounds. They looked very tired but were also very un-settled about staying with quite a lot of cars buzzing by the damn wall. You need only pop your head over the wall for them to fly off and circle the area before settling again.
While you have your headphones on, this recording was taken during the evening chorus and before the Motorbikes turned up so I managed a fairly lengthy recording of this Robin. I did however capture a plane in the background which is near impossible this day and age to get anything but with planes going over every 5-10 minutes no matter where you are.
This next recording deserves a blog post of its own to be honest as I could talk about this for hours. It's a manipulation of a Skylark recording that shows just how complex their song actually is. By slowing down the recording, you can pick out individual beats like it was a peace of music. Yet, even having slowed this recording 7 times slower than its original speed, the rhythms are still extremely fast and hard to comprehend! It's a drummers dream to reach speeds this fast and something we will never achieve as human beings without the aid of computers. Yet again, out-trumped by the natural world and we clearly still have a lot to learn, even with something that we consider a very human trait, after-all, we invented music right? I think not ;)
I didn't get much done this weekend due to strong winds but something I did manage was this short recording of a Wren with counter Wren in the background. This recording was totally ruined however when a Dunnock decided enough was enough and broke them both up by singing a 'sub-song' right in its face...
Early start today with birding friend Craig Constance on a mission to find Ring Ouzel locally and upon arriving at destination, we found one! Amongst 6 Blackbirds.. which didn't make keeping it very easy as once out of site, every blackbird became a target. I didn't get great shots but this was my first ever sighting and I'm very happy to have finally seen one. Big thanks to Craig for the invite, and for getting me out of bed ;) well worth it!. A quick stop at Goldcliff with a no-show from the Glossy Ibis but a lovely male Marsh Harrier but ended up heading back to get some more Ring Ouzel action- to find it had moved on. The day ended with good friend Paul Joy watching Redkites, Yellowhammers, Stonechats and many more and today I also had my first Redstart of the year so things are really happening now and I'm getting really excited for a productive spring.
Only a short photography session today having spent most of the day surveying a site that may be victim to yet another development. This one however, we'll feel all around the valleys. I'll blog about this on a feature date once I've accumulated enough concrete information. For now, enjoy the Meadow Pipit and Yellowhammer that I bumped into on my travels.
Every year, Llandegfedd has spring and autumn visitors of all kinds, but by far the most exciting visitor for me is the Ospreys. You have to be very lucky to catch one here, or spend a lot of time during peak periods to see one. I seem to be very lucky because I've seen Ospreys on Llandegfedd for the last 4 years straight. I've also manage to get photographs, if only ID shots, but all of them are proving to be important in finding out how many Ospreys use this route on their Migration. So far I've managed to photograph 2 individuals with rings on their legs and this year was no exception but with light fading, I couldn't quite work out what the ring said. I've sent the photographs off so I'm hoping that they may be able to find out by the wing markings instead. This information is very important as these birds may want to stay to breed one year (if I can get the Osprey Platform repaired.. hint hint WW).
The picture is a heavy crop so excuse the quality but this is Llandegfedd this April 2016. We may even get more turning up so keep your eyes pealed!
