Big Moment

It's all becoming very real for me this year. New Job in September and followed by my first conference talk at Welsh Ornithological Societies National Conference in November. Having my name last on that poster list isn't at all daunting... with Iolo Williams as our opening speaker and some fantastic topics / speakers throughout. Nice to see some familiar names on there too, with Steve Smith being the very guy who helped get me my new Job at the Brecon Beacons National Park.  

Details of the conference can be found Here with a brief description of the topics for the evening. My Topic is a particularly interesting one for me, 'Be aware of what you hear: how mimicry can influence breeding success '. Without giving away too much, I will be speaking about the art of mimicry and what it means to be a mimic from as close to a birds point of view as I can get. I will also talk about a new mimic on the scene from which you'll have to attend to find out just what that is. I'll speak more about this in future blogs. #exciting

Common Lizards and where to find them

People honestly believe that we don't have Lizards in the Uk... they believe this because they often never get to see one! You find that to be the case for much of the wildlife in Wales. You need to know where to look because more than often, wildlife manages to stay hidden from the world. For a Lizard, the ability to hide can be a matter of life and death.. Sometimes however, these Lizards can be really easy to spot once you know what you're looking for and todays trip to my old patch up the Tranch only took five minutes of searching before spotting at-least four Lizards sunning themselves in the evening sun. I did take more photo's but I'll leave you with the one that gives you an understanding of why they can be sometimes hard to spot. 

Magor Marsh Stop-off

Had to pick something up for the car from Devon today, so the plan was to stop off to one of the many recommendations I had for nature places to visit. Once we arrived at Devon however, I was pretty tired and had a lingering headache so we ended up driving straight back home. A very quick stop off at Magor Marsh on the way back seemed to save the day for photography as the Water Voles were showing well. One thing I love about Magor Marsh, the locals use it regularly, not just for wildlife watching, but a place of solace, and more recently... as part of a the trending game 'Pokemon Go'. (Google it if you don't know yet). It's also used for exercise as people regularly use the tracks as part of their daily run. This doesn't diminish the place though, in-fact for me, it makes it better, as it means the wildlife gets used to the sound of people and therefor, makes them more approachable for me to photograph. The water voles are prime examples of that. So long as you don't move suddenly or make a loud noise, they'l happily carry on with their business. 

Water Vole

Llandegfedd Change of Seasons

At the end of summer, birding at Llandegfedd becomes a lot more interesting. Not only do we get our migratories birds passing thru again on their way back to Africa but we also get some post-breeders turn up to feed right up until Autumn/Winter. Gull numbers are quite high right now with the odd Yellow-Legged Gull among quite a large roost. Terns have already been sighted, mostly Common Tern but 1 Artic Tern has also been recorded so far. One special thing however is the Wading Birds which seem to time their arrival perfectly for a drop in water level. The mud banks are vital for them to feed on water dwelling critters

Most numerous in summer is the Common Sandpiper. The bird below is one of this years chicks, you can tell this by the stripping patterns on the outer wings which are almost non-existent on adult birds. Beautifully elegant looking birds with a bold peeping call similar to that of a Kingfisher. 

Common Sandpiper

Something a little more exciting that I always look forward to seeing is the Ospreys. I've seen at-least one Osprey every Spring and Autumn for the last three years and each year is slightly different. This year was unique in that we had an early migratory bird in July which stayed not far from Llandegfedd but not actually onsite. It was fishing every evening for 3-4 weeks but has since moved on. Other Ospreys have been sighted since but haven't stayed long (couple hours). 

Wild Flower Garden

This year my girl friend and I made the decision to sow wild flowers in the Garden, in replace of some fairly typical Garden plants that I like to call 'fake plants'. By fake I mean, they don't really have any value to the ecosystem, other than sat there looking pretty. 

So in came the wild flowers and even though we were getting a few funny looks as the weed looking stems started shooting, we're so glad we did it now! Not only is the Garden looking very colourful, it has brought about lots of insect activity that we simple didn't get before! The Borage plants were getting huge and very weed looking until they flowered and now they are buzzing with life! As you can see below, this is the first ever Oak Bush Cricket I've had in the garden and with it, what I think is a Honey Bee (though I'm not a Bee expert at all)... 

I just about timed this right as the Bee flying from the flower made the cricket jump off the plant altogether. 

Because of the boost in insect activity, we've also started to get Toads visiting in the night time from the nearby Canal / Stream. Over-all, extremely happy and very low maintenance which is exactly what we needed. 

Funny that I should stumble upon this Oak Bush Cricket in the Garden.. as this was 1 of the 10 species we intended on finding at Llandegfedd's Grasshopper event with Steve Williams on the weekend.. We simply couldn't find one lol.. well there we go. #Garden-tick!

Water Voles

Great to see that the Water Voles of the Gwent Levels are doing well (for now). It goes to show that with Mink control and the right introductory plans, surrounding conservation of habitat ect, we can do great things. This is a good example of conservation, an example of bad conservation comes in the form of Natural England's recent decision to create a licence for everyone to shoot Buzzards.. What are the reasons for wanting to shoot Buzzards you say? Well.. that's so more shooters can carry on killing Pheasants.. an introduced species for sport hunting. Drives me nuts if I'm honest that shooting culture should shape our future wildlife for their own selfish benefits. Anyways, back to these cute fluffy creatures. Enjoy. 

Cricket & Grasshopper Sound

I've been looking forward to recording some Cricket / Grasshoppers again this year and I finally hit jackpot with todays low wind (but lack of sun). It was just about warm enough for the Grasshoppers to be singing. I had trouble uploading the Roesel's Bush Cricket to Soundcloud because no matter what format, frame rate / bit rate I upload it in, Soundcloud kills the quality by compressing the file which looses definition in the most vital frequency, and that just so happens to be the frequency that Roesel's sits in, right at the top around 20,000hz. This is also the reason why many people can't hear a Roesel's, because they've lost that frequency in adulthood (nice way of saying you're getting old). I'm lucky to still have these frequencies and I hope that I keep hold of them for as long as I can because they are so rich and much is to be learned about the sounds of nature. To combat this hearing problem, I've slowed down the recordings straight after the original so you can hear how complex and fast it is, even ten times slower than the original recording. The last part of the recording below is (I think) a Meadow Grasshopper, which slowed down actually reveals the individual scrapes that actually produces the overall tone of the song. It's even more amazing when you hear it in slo-mo! 

Here is the recording of the Roesel's untouched. As you can hear (or not).. the quality has been lost to compression. 

Brecon is approaching

Having celebrated my 27th Birthday yesterday, I was reminded how fast the year is going! It used to be the horrible feeling of going back to school after an endless summer break (that mostly consisted of running around the mountain side). September 1st was never a great day for me, I didn't particularly enjoy school, in-fact, I hated it. I've never been a social person and often found the local green patch of woodland my only escape from the busy crowded life of school. That was later replaced with College where I finally got to study something I love (Music). It seemed the only thing I was good at, despite having a talent for Art, which dreams were halted after receiving my disappointing GCSE results that reminded me that talent alone doesn't get you good grades. I pursued my music further into University and that is where all the magic happened for me.. I grew up, started to realise what was most important, and asked myself a few important life questions. What are my Values? 

I couldn't answer that question at first, but the second year it all came together. I Value Detail.. Probably not the answer you was expecting..But I value detail in everything, small or big, whether that be detail in sound, sight, smell or touch. I value my Family and loved ones for the amount of detail they have enriched my life with, I value nature for all its unlimited inspiration. The problem for me is, my values aren't shared with all and are certainly not expendable...neither am I. We only get a short time on this planet and for me, my chosen career choice is one based upon value and responsibility.  

It hasn't been long since I was running around the mountain side as a kid and yet I'm already seeing those green spaces lost to development or forgotten. The best part for me in school was that small pocket of woodland escape.. a place that is now completely cut off from the children with an 8ft metal spiked fence. 

So here I am today, studying, learning and doing all I can to get a career in Conservation. Come September 1st I'll be travelling back and forth Brecon every day to start my new post as a Trainee Warden for the National Park.  I'm still volunteering for Gwent Wildlife Trust and Welsh Water at Llandegfedd Reservoir.  I hope that through sound recording and photography that I can show you everything I value, in the hope that we start to appreciate what we have and do all we can to protect it. 

I'll leave this waffling with a terrible picture of a Glow Worm from South Sebastopol (taken last week). Yes, we have Glow Worms, or should I say, we used to? Because this is possibly the last site in Gwent for Glow Worm and we are waving it goodbye as Taylor Wimpy rid the site of all its diversity to build 1200 houses. Oh but it creates Jobs and gives us homes to live in.. yes, but at what cost? 

Coal Spoil Inspiration

It would seem that timing is of the essence with yesterdays Coal Spoil Bio Course and todays introduction to a new site for Butterflies that just so happened to be a regenerated coal spoil site. My close friend Craig Constance has been speaking of his secret Butterfly spot for quite some time and we finally got around to going there today. I can't believe I had never been there before! It was such a great place for Butterflies, Dragonflies and Reptiles. It was so nice to see Dark Green Fritillaries is such large numbers, along with many other cool species like Marbled White, Essex Skipper, Grayling, Meadow Brown, Ringlet, Gatekepper, Green-veined and many more. 
I even found what I thought was a new species of spider for me but I've asked local expert Mike Kilner and was reminded of the many varying colours / patterns of what turned out to be a Common Orb-weaver Spider. Still lots to learn! 

Dark Green Fritillary Mating

Dark Green Fritillary

Dark Green Fritillary 

Common Orb-weaver Spider eating 5 Spot Burnet Moth

Coal Spoil Biodiversity Course

Had such a great day today in Aberdare for todays Coal Spoil Biodiversity course. So much to take in but I think I managed to sap up as much as I possibly could. Appreciated and understanding of coal tips as a habitat has greatly improved so I guess the course was a success! Feeling enthused and ready to venture into our local coal spoil heritage which for the most part, is lost. You know what though, It wouldn't have been the same without the fabulous company. It's so nice to meet others that share the same enthusiasm as yourself. 

Slow Worm

Stopped off at my Kingfisher perch on the way home.. was very surprised to have a Juvi Redstart bounce on there though haha. I've had that many Kingfishers in my lens this last week I was almost expecting it to catch a fish.