Viewing entries tagged
Wigeon

Spring Buildup

Just when I thought spring was arriving, we get hit with yet more rain and another cold weather front. It’s been such an odd spring so far, no doubt April has a lot of making up todo as March had to have been one of the coldest we’ve had for a long time. Reminds me of our last ‘beast from the east’ though, thankfully not near as much snow. Either way, birds are still very much gearing up for spring, some sitting on eggs already despite the cold and many migrants turning up. Below is selection of my spring so far, everything from spawning frogs, to late winter migrants, still holding onto that bitter end of winter.

I’ve been lucky to have a few trips this season (before the busy Bat season begins), one trip to Slimbridge which is always a pleasure, another to the Forest of Dean which is another experience I enjoy during the spring. Lastly more recent local trips to see some of our last Waxwing of the winter season and a wintering Black Redstart in Cardiff, which was epic.

Above you’ll also see some weirdly colourful creatures which is a story unto itself, as I discovered these Fairy Shrimp a few years ago now on the Gwent Levels, and as if that wasn’t awesome enough, I discovered more last night under the cover of darkness, which also revealed their incredible colours!! Something you do not get to see by daylight very well at all, but the direct light from my head torch revealed what looks like a bioluminescent-like colouration, with everything from electric blue to pink in the tips of their tails. What fantastic creatures. Fascinating lifestyle too.

Whilst on a nocturnal survey last night I couldn’t resist to record a snippet of the Displaying Lapwing and Wildfowl. One thing that many landowners forget, is that it's not what they see by day that really counts, as at night the levels come alive! Not just your typical Owl activity but many waders and wildfowl function throughout the night, whether it’s feeding, displaying, mating, you name it, they do it all under the cover of darkness. With birds also migrating at night, there’s a whole world of data that we are not truly picking up on. Right now, there isn’t a major requirement todo extensive nocturnal surveys for birds, but I would argue, especially for wildfowl, that nocturnal data should make up more than 50% of the survey effort. Nocturnal displays during the spring paint a far bigger picture for waders than any daytime survey possibly could, which is where static audio data could pave a way forward for ornithological studies. Not to mention, we’re not taking any nocturnal migratory species into account.

Take note of this displaying Lapwing. If you’ve heard one before, you’ll notice that this guy has what I can only describe as a ‘sneeze’ in the middle of its display. It’s quite adorable.

Will end with two landscapes shots of two lovely locations in Gwent, Cefn Ila Nature Reserve and The Blorenge.

Nocmig

Birding

My first ‘birding’ trip to Llandegfedd this year proved fruitful with a Kittiwake flying in over our heads on the dam wall, continuing on a NW flight path. Not sure if it’s a migrating bird or if it’s been blown off course during the last storm but I presume it’s the latter. There’s so much we don’t yet know about migratory birds, which is why Nocmig recording is quite an exciting activity to take part in. All that community data could really help paint a bigger picture about bird movements and distribution and all this could be achieved from the comfort of your home. So far I’ve only heard a Swallow, I haven’t actually seen one yet but looking forward to it.

One spring migrant I’ve certainly heard plenty of so far is the Chiffchaff. At first I wasn’t sure if it was just the birds that overwintered here that were singing, but I can confirm now on the Gwent Levels that they’re everywhere already! Here’s a recording from Llandegfedd this week.

I love this time of year, as winter migrants start to properly sing and ‘warm up’ to spring, but at the same time, spring migrants are arriving and starting to reclaim territories, so you get this cross-over of sounds from birds that live in totally different worlds to each other. You would have probably heard this by now but if you haven’t, keep a close eye on the Ivy and Holly bushes, especially around open fields of waterways. As the Redwing flock up, they’ll often sing together, creating a wall of sound that sounds way bigger than it actually is. The scratchy sub-song of the Redwing is quite common in winter but it’s less common to get a single bird sing their spring song, which is exactly what you can hear slightly in the recording below. Just a few fluty notes is all it takes.

I’ve recorded quite a lot so I won’t post everything, but here’s a comparison between the song of a Goldcrest and a Firecrest. Other than the fact that they’re both high pitch, they’re quite different when you know what you’re listening out for, so here’s a comparison. That dainty, bouncy rhythm of the Goldcrest is quite distinctive compared to the Firecrests loud-sharp-monotone song, that speeds up towards the end.

I have plenty more new recordings to listen to. I’m really starting to become more proud of the work that I do, and the benefits that it has, not just for my own mental health, but for others than are stuck in isolation, not just because of covid lockdowns but because they’re confined to the house, care home or hospital bed.
Below, probably one of my favourite, as it’s my very own Garden Blackbird that is now gracing me every morning and evening. I’ve commented on the track where mimicry is used.

My local Yellowhammer’s are back on territory and it’s so nice to hear this iconic song again. I can’t imagine the countryside without it. We need more gorse! Hedgerows aren’t enough, we need to protect our gorse patches and not allow farming culture to cut it all down. Even the brecon beacons national park have a lot to answer for, for needlessly cutting down gorse. Cattle can graze around it, and it doesn’t spoilt the view, it enhances it, as a mountain side covered in flowering gorse is a site to behold.

If you haven’t managed to get to your local mountains yet, the moorland soundtrack is in full swing again. Plenty of Skylark and Meadow Pipit displaying. The only sad the about that trip was seeing the amount of destruction done to our protected peat bogs. 4X4 and off-road vehicles have a lot to answer for, not only do they pose a threat to ground nesting birds but the damage they’ve have caused to our nationally important peat bogs is almost irreversible. They think it’s just grass, and that the grass will grow back, but that is not our moorlands work! they aren’t in many ways like ancient woodland, formed over hundreds of years, and once damaged like this, take a very long time to recover. The exposed peat makes the moorland less affective at storing water, which can cause flooding, as that water is no longer being stored and released slowly. It also contributes to global warming, as it makes the peat less affective at storing carbon. I hate seeing this happen on our doorstep but truth is, it’s happening everywhere. It’s good to see the police are starting to tackle this but I do think that off-roaders need somewhere where they can practise their hobby and enjoy themselves without causing damage. Simply educating people isn’t going to be enough.

Some other cool moments for sound were these Carrion Crows, that were in full territorial dispute. At first I thought they were dive bombing a predator, but they were actually dive bombing each other. |f you listen to the start of the recording, you can hear two birds forming a bond with each other by rubbing their bills together.

I’ll hopefully get more opportunities to record Siskin, as I know they can be excellent at mimicking other birds. In this recording you can hear Swallow and Green Woodpecker, but I’ve heard some that are quite elaborate with it.

This Robin actually did a pretty good job at mimicking other birds. I’ve commented a few of the more obvious species on the actual track, check them out.

Nocmig

Right! Now onto the good stuff, as migration is well and truly underway! And like last spring, I have high hopes for something special flying over the house. So far it’s been mixed bags, but last night, despite the northerly winds, I had quite a variety of cool birds.

I won’t upload every recording, but I’ve also had Wigeon, Snipe and good numbers of Moorhen, Coot, Mallard, Redwing and small numbers of Song Thrush too. As we approach April, things should really pick up, as so much starts moving, it’s quite exciting as you never know what you might have flying over your house at night. I’m expecting Common Scoter any day now as they have started moving all across the country but I’m also looking forward to Terns arriving, Spotted Flycatchers and Tree Pipits, which seemed to be a popular one for me last year.

I’ll end with some sleep material and a celebration of my local streams.


WWT Slimbridge Winter Special

Theres nothing quite more thrilling than a stunning sunny winters day at Slimbridge WWT nature reserve. What an incredible place, not just for wildlife, but for people of all kinds. Families having a fun filled day observing, playing and learning, all the while, serious birders getting some fantastic views of truly massive numbers of wintering wildfowl & waders with their predators in the mix. Every now and again you're reminded of the amount of conservation work that has taken place their also, with plenty of ringed / satellite tagged birds out on the reserves. It's by far the best place for photography out of all of the WWT reserves I've been to, as the hides are setup with photographers in mind, with the sun at your back and the wildlife up close and personal. How they've achieved all this is beyond me, but it proves it can be done! I know you have to pay to get in, or pay membership fees, but in my opinion, it's worth every penny because you get so much back from it. You only need look at my photographs below to see that and these are only a hand-full of photo's that I took yesterday. Two views of hunting Peregrines in a place that I last saw a hunting Goshawk over the meadows on my last visit. I hope you enjoy my images below. The Water Rail has to be my favourite as it needed to cross the ice to get to the other side of the pond where the water had thawed in the sun. That said, there were lots of incredible moments, perhaps I'll post the images separately and talk about them individually on a later date. For now, enjoy.

Forest of Dean

Day's trip at the Dean in some beautiful weather today. Spent most of the day at Cannop Ponds and the water was very busy. I spent a lot of time chatting to the locals too about wildlife. Met a guy called Ray Buckley also who is a local wildlife photographer, I've seen his photographs before online and he's captured some fantastic forest photos of the dear and wild boar. I've personally not seen one for a long time so was glad to be told of a place nearby where I might find some. I stumbled upon a loan pregnant female that was feeding on acorns in quite a busy area. She wasn't at all phased by people as you can see, the image was taken at 300mm and I found it hard to fit her all in half the time as she was too close. While chatting about her to the locals in the car park, I was approached by an angry man who went out of his way to shout at everyone for getting too close and that "wild boar are the worse thing to have ever happened to the forest". While I can understand his frustration and concern about the increasing numbers of wild boar, I didn't appreciate being shouted at from the off, without any reason to say such things, simply the fact that I was holding a camera, he Assumed I'd be getting too close. I suspect his anger is being aimed at photographers because of the few minority of photographers that have been visiting this area, feeding the wild boar in order to get closer shots. Personally I don't agree with feeding them as their tolerance to people will inevitably result in those individuals getting shot. It's certainly a controversial subject and I'm sure a wildlife TV series will be about soon about the ongoing problems that residence are having in the Forest of Dean. I hope you enjoy my photographs from today. 

Slimbridge

Always so much to talk about and so much to show from a Slimbridge visit. I highly recommend the place if you're yet to visit. Plenty of spring activity here too which fighting Coots, Displaying Great Crested Grebes, Wigeon on the move and our Bewick Swans readying for their flight back to Siberia. Male and Female Sparrowhawks were regulars at the Kingfisher hide, though don't expect to get the picture easy! That wasn't the birds playing hard to get, it was the fight you had to put up in order to get thru the crowd of people once you shout Sparrowhawk! I had this really rude Man practically knocking me out of my square hole in the hide just so he could get in on the action. I took that shot below on my tip toes between 7 people who had taken over the seat I was just sat on. How rude! Some people are clearly just in it for the shot. Next time I won't do them any favours and keep my sightings to myself. 

Teal & Wigeon Magic

For many hours I have sat inside Green Poole Hide at Llandegfedd during every season but by far the most amazing experience I've had has been during winter when the wintering Teal and Wigeon arrive. The sound of Teal is just magical, it just doesn't sound like a Duck! It sounds even more incredible when you get 200+ birds gather in a small pool. I ran back to the car in the rain to get my recording gear as they all of a sudden started to perform mating rituals in the centre of the pool having spent most of the time around the edge resting. Suddenly the place came alive with sound. I've done the best I could to record this experience for you but it was taken inside a hide so you will hear a few creaks and cracks from the wood work. I hope you enjoy the recording. 

Llandegfedd is a designated SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) for its over-wintering Wildfowl and amongst the many species that visit Llandegfedd, Teal, Wigeon and Tufted Duck are usually in fairly large numbers (despite those numbers decreasing). This recording was taken out side one of the hides on the reserve called the 'Green Pool Hide'. Green pool is so named because it has been designed to detach from the main body of water when the water level drops. This allows water to fill naturally according to the weather and currently it is over 20ft higher than the main body of water. This opportunity has been brilliant however because it means we get gatherings like this with over 200 birds crammed into a small pool.

Is that an Osprey on the Osprey Platform?! no.. It's 'just' a Peregrine Falcon! No biggy!