WOS Annual Conference / Mimicking Birds

Last week I attended Welsh Ornithological Societies annual conference, at which I gave my first ever talk on mimicking birds. It was quite a nerve-racking thing for me but it was received well, despite having magor issues with the sound. I have since been asked to do the same talk at Gwent Ornithological Societies AGM in January so if you missed it, please come along. 

In my talk you'll learn more about how birds learn the sounds that they produce, why mimicking birds prefer certain sounds to others and also learn the different types of mimicry that help us work out why they use these techniques and how it influences their breeding success. Below is a slide from my presentation showing a birds unique filtering system. If you're interested, the GOS AGM is on the 21st of January. 

Filtering System

Red Grouse Conservation @ BBNP

I know, it's been a while since I've blogged...and what have I brought you after all this time? Pictures of poo.

Apologies for that. As you probably guessed I've been extremely busy. I haven't picked up the camera in weeks! As sad as that is, these last two months have been pretty amazing. I'm loving my new Job and thought I would share with you the areas which I enjoy the most. The BBNP take conservation quite seriously, with a great ecology team ever pushing the standards. Red Grouse are one species that are of particular concern as they are a good indicator species for the health and well-being of our heathland. The BBNP participate in annual Grouse Counts to monitor the species but they also do everything they can do improve the Grouse' chances of breeding. Below you'll see pictures of Grouse Poo.. quite easy to identify once you've got your eye in.

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We also like to supplement the grouse with piles of grit to help them digest their food. Grit can be found naturally on the mountain but by purposefully placing the grit in areas that are more secluded, the Grouse don't have to venture out into the open areas to find it which gives them a better survival rating. 

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Heather restoration is also very important and a massive Job to maintain thanks to climate change. The mountains are getting warmer and Heather being an upland species, actually prefers the colder altitudes (which is why you usually only see these species of plant on the top). Heather is also victim to encroaching species like Bracken that is actually moving up the mountain due to warmer temperatures. There are other factors of course like heather beetle that actually damages the heather. 

So how do we tackle these issues? Well the BBNP take two approaches; 

  • Bracken Bashing is a simplistic, but effective way of killing the bracken, giving the heather a better chance of growing and reclaiming the outer edges.  
  • Heather Seed Harvesting is another way of ensuring the future of the heather and can be either stored ready for future restoration, or it can be dried and sown the next year in the areas that need it the most. 

Below is a picture of the first bag of seed we gathered this week. This bag will be filtered through a finer mesh back at the depot to filter out the leaves/twigs from the seeds. Eventually we'll end up with just the pale round seeds ready for sowing in the future. 

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I've really enjoyed this activity. Red Grouse are really incredible upland species and a Joy to have on the hill. If you haven't seen one, get up at the crack of dawn to your local heathland and you may just get lucky. They are most active in the morning I have found and can be heard and seen, moving into the open areas of young heather to feed. 

Below is a beautiful picture of a Red Grouse, taken locally by superb photographer and friend Mike Warburton. Click the picture for a link directly to his Flickr page. 

Colour

If you didn't know, I am actually colourblind. Colourblindness isn't what most people expect though, I can see colour, I'm just limited with certain shades of particular colours. For me Autumn is hard to appreciate, not just because everything gets colder and wetter but because I can't really appreciate the full spectrum of colour that everyone has come to love as the trees change over. I lack the ability to see Red, this includes colours that include Red in their spectrum so most colours wouldn't look the same to me as everyone else. Not only do I lack Red, I am overly sensitive to Yellows, Greens and Oranges, so that makes it ever harder for me in a sea of green. Once the leaves start turning yellow, that is when I start to appreciate the colours but by then its not really autumn anymore. 

I've mentioned this because the picture below, for me takes a way a lot of distraction for me. Simplifying this photo of kingfisher taken in the summer has actually made me appreciated the detail more. I'm going to call this the 'neon' project. I'll hopefully be able to do this same editing technique on some more of my colourful photographs and strip the photos down to the most vibrant colours only. Will be an interesting project which may not be for everyone, but I like it. 

(Plus I've been ill for a while and needed to do something..)

Red Theme

Red Grouse, Red Fox Moth Caterpillars, Red Kites and Red Foxes made up an un-intended theme for the day today in work. We set off, a group of around 10 to re-visit a site on the edge of the national park on the boarder of Hereford, to carry on with this autumns grouse count. We had to call the last survey off due to bad weather after getting on the hill and being greeted with a strike of thunder on the ridge opposite. Todays weather however was much better! and we did end up seeing a decent amount of grouse. I did bring the camera with me, just incase one flew my way but all I got was the back end of a few just before they dipped back down for cover. 

Reflecting on the day

Always up for trying new photography techniques and I've personally not tried this before but had a lot of fun today on a new reflection pool. These are just a select few of my favourites from today. I'll be digging into these files for a while having come home with over 1000 photographs. I'll distribute them throughout the year lol. 

Small Copper, Big Reservoir

Short walk around the north side of Llandegfedd this morning saw, very little  really. A lone female Wheatear was drinking on the waters edge before joining a small flock of Meadow Pipit, a clear sign of migration. Other than that, not much happening, only one Common Sandpiper and one Small Copper butterfly that had me on the run around for a while. I apologise for the lack of blogging this month, New Job, less time, less energy haha. I am working towards something this autumn however so expect plenty more photo blogs to come. 

Beacons Air Lift

If you're following me on Facebook or Twitter, you would have read already that on Wednesday I got the pleasure of exploring the mountains of Talybont in a Helicopter as part of a project to repair erosion on the local moorland. The task required traffic control, both on the ground and on the mountain, which was surprisingly busy considering we were in the middle of nowhere. 

I was lucky in that I got the upland part of the challenge which meant riding up and down in the Helicopter. I was also lucky enough to be able to bring my camera and phone from which I got just about enough footage to put together a little video for you all to watch. As you can see in the video, the bags being transported were pretty large and full with stone, soil and surprisingly water, which added excess weight that did make it pretty challenging for the Helicopter. 

We managed 38 passes which, given the conditions, was pretty impressive. The ending was a bit sketchy with fog getting too thick for the pilot to find us on the mountain top, he actually had to ditch the last load of rocks further down the mountain to make sure he had the best chance in bringing us back down. Either way, the day was very successful but still lots more bags to go up.

I had a fantastic time, it was my first time in a Helicopter and hopefully not my last. It is a great project and for a great cause, we need to look after our uplands / Moorlands. It's taken hundreds of years to form the way they are and our moorlands are our first defence from flooding. 

14.09.16 - Brecon Beacons National Park air lifting stone to repair upland erosion along beacon path

Red Grouse Theme of the day

Today had such potential to be my favourite day so far working at the beacons, on an Annual Grouse count, high up in the hills surrounded by miles of flowering heather. Sounds amazing right? Well, theme of the day was set by the picture below that pretty much described our day before it even started. 

As we climbed up to the highest peak of Cwmyoy, the fog got thicker and before we knew it, visibility was pretty poor. 18 of us turned up for the count, joined by three highly trained spotter Dogs that would aid us tremendously, providing there were any grouse. By now I'm sure you've worked out the outcome but apart from a few grouse droppings, we pretty much only found Fox Moth Caterpillars and two Heather Bumble Bee's. 

Not for lack of trying though! The word 'yomping' comes to mind and I certainly have the blisters to show for it! I'll refrain from posting pictures.. not a pretty picture.

I've edited this photo of a Ram in such a way that it minimises the Fog so this doesn't give you a true indication of how foggy it was. A clearer day will probably result in more grouse but even still, I don't think the numbers are doing so well up there. 

Photography Experiments

I spent a lot of today just walking around with little to show for it photography wise. The light in these locations were pretty poor, so today I decided to ignore all the rules and try some slow shutter photography, maintaining lower ISO settings and just accepting the challenges that poor light can give. The first picture below is a Leopard Slug on the largest Fungi I've ever seen, it was the size of a dinner plate! With no tripod at hand, I used my bag to rest my camera and 100-400mm telephoto lens on the floor and I was shooting over a period of 6 seconds to gain enough light in what was nearly complete darkness. I also used my built in camera flash to add a little uplift, though I'm not sure it made too much difference. 

Below is an arty shot, some would call it a 'failed shot' having had too slow of a shutter speed to freeze the action, but considering it was a Stock Dove, I thought, why not? I'm not in any rush to get flight shots of Stock Doves so I tried to experiment with lower ISO / Shutter Speed and to be honest, I really like this. I'll be experimenting with this more often I think. 

Froglet Log & Banking Dragons

Only a short stay at Llandegfedd today. Was swiftly greeted by another two boys on off-road vehicles thru the wild flower meadows again so that didn't put me in a great mood but this Froglet did save the day followed by a stunning Male Migrant Hawker hunting in the peeping sunshine that was trying so hard to make an appearance today. These weren't my intended subjects for today but sometimes you just have to make the most of what you're given.