End of Season

November 1, 2017

My first season as a Ranger at Llandegfedd has ended and what better way to end it than with a Black Tern and Great White Egret! It was nice to also receive a card and box of biscuits from Valery (Local Resident and Llandegfedd's star litter picker). She deserves a medal for the amount of time and effort she puts into keeping the place look tidy, that and she's genuinely a lovely person so it meant a lot to receive a personal card from her. Other notable sightings at Llandegfedd came from Craig Constance yesterday morning with a flock of Hawfinch! They appear to be popping up all over the country at the moment, suspected to be caused by the destruction of large forests in Russia.

Suddenly I have lots of time on my hands for the next 4 months till the next season starts (If they have me back). If you know of any conservation work this winter, i'd appreciate getting in-touch with me.

With beautiful weather today, you'd think I'd be out in the car venturing off somewhere special with my camera, but instead, I'm stuck at home with a fractured wrist..
Not exactly what I had planned after work finished but maybe I need the rest?
Will need to go back to the hospital next week for a scan as it's a 'complicated' bone that may need further attention if it doesn't heal properly.

That said, I can still hold the camera! Turns out I carry the camera with my left hand and all the right hand does is press the shutter lol. So a little trip across the canal is all I'm able to do for now till I can drive again.

Wryneck @ Llandegfedd

September 26, 2017

This month has been pretty busy so far, and October is looking to be even busier! However I am only on seasonal work right now (sad face), so I'll have 4 months over the winter time and plenty of time to write some blogs. For now however you'll have to deal with my staggered blog posts. I am saving them for something special that will be revealed soon ;). I have been taking pictures, I'm just waiting for the right opportunity to post them!

For now I'll give you a taster of the fantastic bird that turned up at Llandegfedd last weekend! I've never seen a Wryneck before and was blown away with how cryptic their patterns were. You can learn a lot through observing behaviour and because I didn't really know much about these birds, I did spend a full day observing the bird after Gavin Moore found it and thankfully put the word out. I joined in the search while the bird popped up in random places, swiftly followed by eager birders, myself including. I was extremely disappointed to see a notorious paparazzi climbing and running across the Dam wall on arrival just to get a closer photo. The lengths that some people take to get a photograph are unreal and I would much rather wait and observe than clamber over people who simple want to see the bird.. Something that may never happen if you're own actions cause the bird to be flushed. Selfish photographers, it's an illness.

The bird was trying to feed alongside the road verge near the curbs. Every now and again it would pop up on the fence post. It was just a matter of hiding behind a car and hope it would land on a post in reach of the lens, which it just about did 5 minutes after I said I was going to leave. It pays to be patient :).

After the Storm

September 15, 2017

With heavy storms hitting the Uk the last two weeks, we've seen Migration in two very different ways. Firstly a halt in activity due to high winds coming from the south, this brought us 3 Juvenile Ospreys at the same time, just over a week ago. They are all still at Llandegfedd and are continuing to catch fish and put on a great show, right from the visitors centre. Following the high winds, the weather has taken a change with rain storms coming from the north, which has seen the swift movement of thousands, if not millions of Swallows and House Martins all over the country. It was quite a spectacle today to see so many bird moving south. One of the 3 Juvenile Ospreys showed a Blue Darvic Ring (Blue JL8) on the left leg which we've tracked back to Aberfoyle, Scotland this year. Darvic rings are proving to be vitally important in tracking birds of prey as the large rings can be read with a good telephoto lens. The last two photos in this group show all three Ospreys in one tree and the last picture is one of the Ospreys looking at a Fox in the background lol. Something I never thought i'd see in the same lens, despite it being a way off.

Cattle Egret

July 17, 2017

'Patching' is so important and there is nobody that's more committed to a single patch than Craig Constance. He really does put a lot of time and effort into birding Llandegfedd and as a result, he has found some great birds over the years. Yesterday evening was another classic example as we were just about to meet up after my shift and he finds a Cattle Egret right opposite the visitors centre, much to my approval, as I've never seen one before!. They are usually winter visitors to the Uk but breeding records are increasing yearly, this year even breeding at the popular RSPB site - Hamm Wall Nature Reserve. Llandegfedd is a perfect breeding site for Cattle Egrets with plenty of mature trees around the outskirts of the water to nest in but also plenty of farmed fields for Cattle Egrets to feed. As the name suggests, Cattle Egrets are closely associated with Cattle, in that they prefer to be feeding at the feet of cattle as they disturb insects off the ground. They are native to places like Asia, Africa and Southern Europe and you may have seen them in Nature documentaries on TV, feeding around the feet of Elephants and larger cattle. Here their feeding methods remain largely the same, only they feed around Cows, Horses and Sheep.

In other news, the resident Osprey is still present, seen only early hours and late evening. I would recommend making an early appearance for best chance of seeing it fishing (between 5-7am, or late evening between 7-9).

Osprey Activity

July 13, 2017

Our annual Osprey visit at Llandegfedd seems to be giving everyone a run for their money, showing only to the select lucky few as it catches a fish and disappears for days on end. Lucky for me, part of my Job as a Ranger at Llandegfedd requires regular boat patrols / rescues and on one occasion it flew as close as I think I'll ever get to a wild Osprey before returning to its roosting tree. This individual has been present for a couple weeks now and has become quiet at home for the time being. I'm not sure how long it will hang around but if you're yet to see it, I'm working lates for the next 9 days so pop by the visitors centre and if I'm available, I can give you up-to-date info on it's activities.

In other news, another victim to fishing line as a Carrion Crow manages to tangle itself on the highest branch it could find on a completely dead tree, leaving Craig Constance and myself completely helpless as it struggled. We tried literally everything and even rang our local Fire department in the end in desperation. They did everything they could to try and get it down and not even they could reach it. The bird unfortunately didn't survive the trauma. Sorry to share the images with you, I know it's not nice seeing anything suffering but we really did do everything we could. A hungry Stoat watched intently at the bird but not even a Stoat would have got that high.

Wader Week

July 6, 2017

The last two weeks we've started to get our first southern movement of Waders, along with other early spring / summer breeders that have either failed to breed or have already fledged their first brood of chicks. It's a good time of year as you really could get anything turning up at the Reservoir. Lucky for me I get to scan the banks while on Boat patrols at work and the last two days have pulled up quite a few waders that I would have missed if walking on the bank. Today I found a single Oystercatcher, 6 Common Sandpiper and 2 Redshank. Also this week we've had a pair of Little Ring Plover, Greenshank, Green Sandpiper and a single Juvi Lapwing.
Hard to believe that we used to have Lapwing breeding onsite in decent numbers and now we're lucky if we get a single summer visit from one.

Back on track

July 2, 2017

Back to work and back on track! I think it goes to show I lucky I am when the place I spend my days off at, is also the place I work. Llandegfedd will always be a special place for me and this weekend it revealed some more of its secrets, this time in the form of a lovely Butterfly called a Purple Hairstreak. I've heard they were present but never seen them for myself till today. I didn't get anything great photography wise to show you, as they remain high up in Oak tree canopies, not to mention they are pretty darn small so even a bigger lens than my own wouldn't quite cut it. Other notable species this weekend - Green Sandpiper, Common Sandpiper, Little Ringed Plover, Kingfisher, Reed Warbler, Reed Bunting, Little Egret, Spotted Flycatcher, Common Scoter and the today ended with a Juvi Cuckoo.

Llandegfedd

May 30, 2017

Apparently I have been neglecting my Blog! So here is a quick update for May. As many of you already know, I started my new Job at Llandegfedd at the start of May and have been pretty busy as a result. The Job is going great! and it's so good to be close to home and recording wildlife sightings on my patch again. Today was a perfect example of how great it is working on your birding patch as I came across my first Hummingbird Hawkmoth! Not the best photograph as it disappeared just as quick as it appeared alongside a stream feeding on Red Campions. While we're on the flower subject, I've been keeping an eye on the wild flower meadows at Llandegfedd this year as I have some Orchid tours todo in work in June. So far we have a decent show of both Common Spotted Orchid and Southern Marsh Orchid with the meadows being covered in Yellow Rattle and Bird's foot Trefoil. Hopefully this year we'll get a good show of Butterflies but so far the Dragonflies are really showing well, especially the Beautiful Demoiselles at Sor Brook.

Spring Toads & New Job

March 10, 2017

SO! It was only six months ago that I shared the great news that I had got a Job working for the Brecon Beacons National Park, a game changer of a Job that I absolutely love! However it is only a Trainee position with no guarantee of a permanent Job at the end, so during this training I've been keeping my eyes open for other Jobs, hoping that something will come up a little closer to home. A couple months ago, Welsh Water starting advertising for Rangers at Llandegfedd Reservoir. As you'll probably know already, I love Llandegfedd! It's always been that special go-to place that fuelled my wildlife passion. So yesterday I had my interview for the Job and today you can imagine how happy I am to hear that I got the Job. If all goes smoothly in the transfer, I'll be starting in April.

A short trip to Llandegfedd after college today and you can see why I love this place so much! There is literally Toad fall-out! and I've tried my best to capture the energy in this annual event. There were about 50 males to 4 females so you can imagine the amount of fighting going on. Sometimes you just have to fight your way to victory.

Pre-spring

February 25, 2017

Typical wet and windy weekend but still went out with the camera regardless. I love looking for signs of spring and there were plenty today even in the rain. I visited Llandegfedd, one of my favourite locations. The Great Crested Grebes have already got their spring plumage with crests getting larger every day and some are already displaying to each other.

Wild Primrose is flowering in the surrounding meadows, along with our native wild Daffodil which is becoming harder and harder to find in the southern parts of Wales.. I see plenty of them on the way to work in Brecon however.

Another pre-spring sign can be found in the wintering Wildfowl that are hanging around, much like these Teal that are all squabbling over a single female, most of which are already moving north. Short video below shows them displaying to the female.

Saw my first batch of Frogspawn up the British also and with it, a Grey Heron! Haven't seen a Heron on this patch before and certainly wasn't expecting to flush one while walking through a Gorse patch.

With new development on the cards for 'The British', its unknown at present, just how much we will retain of the wild reclaimed slag-heaps, that are proving to be great for wildlife! Who would have thought that are scarred post-industrial history would give birth to such a hospitable habitat, not just for our bird population but our Invertebrates, Flora and even our Bryophyte moss species. The site is currently used mostly by Dog Walkers and Off-road vehicles like quad bikes and scramblers, so weekends are a no go if you want to see Birds, but plants thankfully don't move and the un-touched areas of the slag-heaps are reclaimed by many species of Grass, and in this case Bryophyte, as shown in the picture below that shows a cluster of both Reindeer Moss - cladonia impexa and I think the start of Silky Wall Feather-moss - homalothecium sericeum which as its name suggests, prefers wall / rock environments, but in this case, the Coal is acting as a good alternative.

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