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Taste of Freedom and Nocmig Continued

Garden Bugs

A few extra bee species added to the list, some of which can’t be fully ID’d without a microscope but I’m new species for me either way. Particularly happy with the Andrena Bicolor as I don’t believe I’ve ever seen this species before. I’ve started to record Hoverflies now also but it’s all getting a bit much! So many species to record, it’s almost like a full time Job if you really commit to it. It certainly keeps you occupied though if you’re struggling to find things to do during this lockdown period.

Garden Nocmig

Things are getting really interesting on the Garden Nocmig, so good that I’ve taken my organising to a whole new level. Below is a screenshot of my datasheet where I can log my records, but also give more information about weather conditions, gear used, and file name. I can also drop audio recordings onto the file so I can playback the recording right from the spreadsheet, which is really useful when revisiting files.

As you’ll see on the list, in the last two days I’ve had some really interesting birds! Just in the last two days alone I’ve had Curlew and a small movement of Arctic Terns. I’m sure in the first recording below there may be a few Common amongst them which you can hear at the very start of the recording but it is faint.

I’ve had plenty of mysteries during this recording process but by far the most intriguing for me is this bunting like call below. There are a few species with similar calls and I thought for a moment that it might be Little Bunting, but I’ve sent it to a few experienced birders, who are sure it’s not Little Bunting but are still unsure what it actually is. It may be something as simple as a Yellowhammer but as there’s only one call to go off, it becomes quite difficult to determine without some reference material. I’ve made the bunting file downloadable via Soundcloud, if you think you might know what it is, please let me know.

I’ve also added two other species since, in the form of a Kingfisher and Shelduck! At first, I logged the Shelduck as a Cormorant haha. After you’ve spent hours listening to nothing but air, your ears do play tricks on you after a while but it’s all a learning curve. It’s good to take time off and listen back with fresh ears. Big thanks to Chris at the Rare Bird Alert for letting me know about my mistake.

Taste of Freedom!

I’ve finally started back to work after what seemed like an age. For someone like myself who requires interacting with nature for the sake of my mental health, the release of being outdoors was quite emotional. I can’t stress enough the importance of being outdoors with nature, it really does make all the difference, so get out in the Garden as much as you can. Don’t suffer needlessly during this lockdown, take your daily walk come rain or shine.

For those that aren’t aware I’m self-employed, and everything I do outdoors is wildlife research, whether as a sub-contractor, my wildlife media business or for In Our Nature CIC as we’re working on nature content for people suffering from mental health. Whilst I’ve ensured I’ve worked from home as much as possible, a huge part of this work requires me being outdoors and so long as guidelines are followed I see no reason why this can’t continue. Below are a few species encountered during work, I hope you enjoy them!

One of my favourite species the Grasshopper Warbler. There’s just something about reeling or churring species that really ticks a box for me. They don’t have to look pretty at all so long as they sound interesting. Due to the right wind conditions in the last week or so, we’ve been getting a bit of a Grasshopper Warbler fall out, and that’s because they aren’t very good fliers despite having to migrant quite long distances, so wind conditions need to be in their favour but as a result they do end up blowing off course. This year due to the right conditions we should see a bumper year for them. I picked up 4 reeling males in the same location on the Gwent Levels.

Sedge Warbler and Reed Warbler have also turned up in good numbers.

Below are two types of Blackcap Song that’s worth noting if you haven’t already. The extended song is the one that’s often mistaken for Garden Warbler, as it’s drawn out and implements more of a linear pattern with less listening breaks. During this time a female entered it’s territory and he sang from low down in a bramble patch. Likely it’s preferred nesting location. Once the female had left its territory, he flew back to the top of a willow tree and sang the typical Blackcap song which is short and implements that typical fluty belt at the end of each phrase. Presumably this type of song carries further distances.

I’m starting to accumulate a nice collection of bird songs now, and if you’re interested to listen to more please follow this link where I’ve started to organise into collections.

Catch Up

Garden

Those that are friends with me on Facebook will know that I haven’t been well for the past 2 weeks with Covid symptoms. I still haven’t been tested but the Doctor was convinced I had Covid-19 as I was very ill and all symptoms were textbook, with Fever, body pain, kidney problems, migraines and of course, a terrible dry cough. To cut a long and painful story short, I am so much better now, thanks to the wonders of modern medicine. Whilst doctors say antibiotics don’t work for viruses, the hospital said that Doxycycline has been responding well with covid-19 and a strong dose certainly seemed to help me as I usually struggle with chest infections anyway. Never have I experienced such a fever before, shaking all night long with temps between 37.5-38.8. Please be prepared, the shortness of breath is no joke, it was quite a frightening experience, but I got thru it! We’ve followed all guidelines set out by the government RE self-isolation and thanks to loved ones we’ve been well looked after. Happy to report I’m back on form, as you’ll tell by the number of bugs I found in the Garden these last two days. I’ve done my best to ID them but naturally have to run them by Liam Olds and Mike Kilner to be sure. This time last year I was totally new to Bee’s so was happy to ID quite a few in the Garden, which proves I’m learning. Just add a few species to your list each year and you’ll be surprised how quickly you can pick these up.

Forest of Dean

Whilst I’ve had time on my hands, I had a look thru some old files from earlier on in the spring. I spent a lot of time in the Forest of Dean in search of drummer Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers to add to my sound recording catalogue and even though I failed, I did find some characters along the way. Wild Boar are incredible creatures, so intelligent and play such a vital role in the forest. They truly belong in the Forest of Dean and I couldn’t imagine them not being there. Just seeing the habitat they’ve created in some of the dense forestry is enough to make you realise their importance. Watching the humbugs playing, feeding and sleeping is a joyous experience that I’ll carry with me forever. As the light faded she gathered nesting material for the night and the little humbugs joined in! bringing small piles of bracken over, even if it was in the wrong place. They really do learn from a very young age. Below the photos I have a short sound recording of the humbugs begging mother for a feed, much to her disapproval.

Nocmig

I stopped recording overnight during my ill period but I’ve just started back up, and this time sporting my shotgun microphone as I wanted to be able to capture the rarer species with a little more clarity to share with you. For recording purposes you really don’t need anything expensive, just a handheld recorder will do the trick, but the files aren’t that pleasing to listen to, as you’ll know from my last blogs.

Over the last couple of days, I’ve added a few new species to the Garden list, with Common Sandpiper, Little Ringed Plover and Golden Plover being my favourite so far. I’ve added one more Water Rail too, this time a little closer to the mic. The recordings will still sound quiet, but they’re perfectly viewable on the spectrograph which is all you really need to ID them.
Listening back to some without decent headphones on, you may not even hear them, but they are there.

There isn’t a whole lot of resources online to ID nocturnal flight calls but that is changing as time goes on and more people are starting to join in. It’s a great way to kill a few hours in the morning and I’ve learned so much already. I mean who would have thought I would get Oystercatcher, Common Scoter, Golden Plover, Water Rail, Curlew and Little Ringed Plover over Sebastopol! Every single night I get Moorhen, Coot and plenty of unknown wing beats that I need to ID, but it’s possible to even Id those if you study them hard enough. I’ve also learned more about Tawny Owls in this process and how many different sounds they actually make. I’ve lost track of the amounts of times I’ve heard this call:

I thought this call was unique to my local tawny, as I have recorded a Tawny here before that sounded like it had some vocal trouble. You might remember from last year? Here’s a reminder below. Turns out though that this call is just a contact call, and this was proven to me by Craig Constance who also picked up the same type of call from his local Tawny Owl last night.

All in all, I’m starting to enjoy this nocturnal migration recording. Not only is it giving me something to do during this period of isolation but I’m learning something new every day. I’ll leave you with a picture from 2017 of an unforgettable experience with three juvenile Ospreys, one of which was born in Scotland and the other two who’s origin will remain a mystery due to no rings. I worked at Llandegfedd at the time so learned their every move, from favoured feeding perches, roost perches and their general routine. I’ve been recording Osprey movements at Llandegfedd for over 10 years, as you’ll see in past blogs. I’ve accumulated quite a list of ringed birds, most of which have been from Scotland. I continue to play an active role with ongoing communications with Welsh Water so we can one day erect a nesting platform once a suitable location is found. This year should be a great year for our Ospreys as the lockdown ensures our large lakes have less disturbance from tourism and boat activity. The same will apply to many shy breeders.

Mystery Grasshopper & New Business

It’s wet outside, and despite still working outdoors, I’ve not been able to do much sound recording, so I’ve revisited a few of my old recordings, and in doing so, I’ve listened with a new set of ears. As it would appear that on the 13th of August 2019, the same day I found this beautiful Southern Migrant Hawker, I also recorded this Grasshopper, which I’ve now identified as a Long-winged Cone-head, after much trawling of the internet and research!

At full speed, it sounds quite similar to a Great Green Bush-cricket, which is what got me so excited as they haven’t been recorded that far inland in Wales, and it would have been another first for Llandegfedd. Take a listen below;

Southern Migrant Hawker 13.08.19 Llandegfedd

Slowing the recording down, however, revealed 3 distinct syllables, as opposed to the 2 syllables you typically find in Great Green, so I had to rule that species out. I needed to find a source of online audio files, preferably that were in high enough quality that I could slow down and compare to my own recordings. As despite posting these recordings on designated Othoptera groups, I wasn’t getting much luck!
Unexpectedly the info I needed was found on a BAT website. Which makes a lot of sense because Bat surveyors often pick up grasshoppers and crickets by accident, but so much so that a bat detector has become a good tool for ID’ing orthoptera. Thankfully they listed the frequencies and patterns of enough species for me to identify my grasshopper as a Long-winged Conehead, with 3 syllables in each phrase.

You can see it quite clearly in the sonograph below. It seems obvious now, but I wasn’t aware that Long-winged Cone-heads were able to perform this slow! I’ve certainly not heard any recordings online that sounds remotely the same. Usually, they are much faster, so fast that the individual beats are usually inaudible at real-time. He must have been tired after a long day of performing, as it was getting late in the evening. Goes to show that even species that are usually reliably and easily separated, can throw a curveball every now and again.

All of this has got me even more excited about the year ahead. I’m going to record more species than ever this year. But I’m not just going to do that..I’m also very excited to share a new business venture with you, called ‘In Our Nature Cic’

Wildlife Photography and Sound Recording are just excuses for me to spend more time outdoors for the sake of my own mental health, but also so I can share this experience with other people in the hope it enriches their lives too. I’ve never really felt that I was doing enough to share my experiences with you, but thankfully there are others who share this passion. Veronika Brannovic has worked in the third and public sector for over 20 years, developing and delivering projects that connect people to nature. Together we’re launching our business that aims to improve peoples wellbeing through contact with nature. We aim to do this through various activities but for more information, head over to the website which is almost complete.

‘In Our Nature Cic’

Spring has already arrived!

Frankly, signs of spring are long behind us. Spring is here! Insects that usually hatch in April and May are already on the wing and plenty of leaves and flowers are spouting in what ended up being a very mild day today. I haven’t ventured to any ponds yet but I’m sure frogs are spawning all over the country already and that for me, is the beginning of spring. Below’s selection of ferns, mosses and lichens came from a single spot in Llanover which I return to regularly throughout the year as it’s a beautiful place to lose one’s thoughts.
Plenty of spring hatching Caddisfly Larvae and Stoneflies on the wing which I’m sure the bird population are already making the most of. Below you’ll notice a Hart’s-tongue Fern that splits into two! I’ve never seen this before but despite it not being common, it has been noted by other naturalists. Some have called it a ‘Forked Hart’s-tongue Fern or a Split Crested Hart’s Tongue Fern. Whatever this is called, it looks cool!!
I have some other mosses and lichens that I need to look. I could do with a better book! Nice to see some flowers blooming in the form of Snow Drops, Wild Crocus’ and Red Campions.

My last blog was all about sound recording and I know many people don’t like to listen to things without some visual stimulant. We need to learn how to shut our eyes though, so feel free to put your headphones on and close your eyes on this one, it’s only an iPhone video to set the atmosphere.

Colourful Tenerife

First blog of the year, Happy New Year! It’s been very busy over Christmas but nothing a week away with Jodie in Tenerife couldn’t fix. This is only my second time on a plane and my second time to Tenerife. I’ve not had many chances to travel like this growing up but I have enjoyed Tenerife, as, despite the much hotter climate and vastly different habitats, I couldn’t help but notice many similarities. The list of birds wasn’t large, but I added a few extras from my last trip, in the form of Barbary Partridges, Sardinian Warbler, Blackcap, Blackbird, Great Tit, African Blue Tit, Common Sandpiper, Little Egret, Monks Parakeet, Canary Chiffchaff, African Collared Dove, Canary, and plenty of Kestrels. It wasn’t a birding trip, I actually only brought my Macro Lens with me for portability. All the photo’s below were taken with a 100mm lens, which presented its challenges, especially with the Red Rock Crabs which were hot on their toes the minute your head pops over the rocks. Most of the Reptiles are endemic, such as the Tenerife Lizard, of which there are two subspecies between the north and south. These are the northern variety. Anyway, I’ll leave you with these photographs, I’ll interject a few more in later blogs but I didn’t take that many.

Hidden Gems & Mystery Call

I’ve got a soft spot for wildlife that utilises camouflage. I’ve found numerous Jack Snipe this season but only attempted to photograph this one as you can do so without stepping into their habitat. This is something you can’t avoid when photographing Nightjar though, which is why I recommend you stay out of breeding areas during spring and summer where you’re more likely to cause disturbance, or even step on the nest, especially if you don’t know what you’re looking for. Somethings finding birds doesn’t require such subtly though, and sound usually gives their location away, even in the winter, which is why I love bringing my recording gear with me. This is a good example of why I encourage people to record sound in the field, as it can often reveal a much bigger picture of what species are in the environment. I heard this call numerous times, and it’s not unlike the call of a Whitethroat, or even a Dartford Warbler, but if you listen carefully, the sound isn’t made up of a group of notes like a typical bird call is. It took me a while to find out what it actually was, as I couldn’t see the critter in the hedge and it was right next to a reen, which was my first clue.
It was in-fact a Water Shrew! I’ve never seen one before, and I’ve certainly not heard one till today, but this is a sound I will not forget. It wouldn’t be the first time that I recorded something that I couldn’t see, and this is why I love sound recording, as you start to pay more attention to the whole environment and not what’s directly in-front of you.

Llandegfedd Delivers

It’s always good to have a regular patch to check throughout the year, not only do you get to learn a lot more about the site but you also give yourself more of a chance of finding something significant. Sharing a patch with a more experienced birder also helps for sure! and I’m lucky to visit Llandegfedd with Craig Constance as he really is religious about birding Llandegfedd and this week it paid off with a striking Male Smew. Last year we had a Female but she only came onto the reservoir when the water level was high on the usk river and she didn’t stick around for long. You need to time your visits in accordance to the weather and we learned a hard lesson this morning as the fog put a lot of birders off this morning, but an avid birder on the damn waited till the fog started to clear and managed to spot a Great Northern Diver leaving the reservoir and carrying on south. It goes to show how easy it is to miss migrant birds.

You’ve already spotted the pics below, but whilst watching the Gull roost we were graced with extremely good views of Jack Snipe from Petingale hide! I’ve been closer, almost standing on some in the past, but I’ve never had extended views like this. It was truly magical, and an experience I’ll never forget. I love birds that camouflage themselves. They don’t have to be colourful, but if they do have vibrant colours like this Jack Snipe, it is certainly a bonus.

Red Pools

Red Pools iPhone Pic

When you receive a phone call off John Marsh it usually means there’s a rare bird around. Today was slightly different than usual though as this time John didn’t have his camera or scope with him! which is probably rarer than the bird itself, so I quickly got to Red Pools to confirm for him that the subject bird was in-fact a Slavonian Grebe as he suspected. If you’ve not been before, it’s certainly a welly job this time of year and it’s a nice little walk in what’s mostly a reclaimed post-industrial landscape that’s re-wilded to a spectacular variation of scrubs, pools, bogs and reed bed. There were also 3 female Goldeneye on pool 3 but were very flighty. The Slav grebe remained in the furthest corner of pool 3 feeding away with 2 Mute Swans for company. Whilst trying to get a better vantage point of the Slav Grebe I did actually flush a Woodcock from under a birch tree and 40 minutes later I flushed another Woodcock from a different pool which could have been the same one I suppose. If it was, I do apologise woody! 20 Snipe, Redshank, Water Rail, Cetti’s Warbler and a Kingfisher were also present around the pools. I had a Chiffchaff following a Long-tailed Tit flock which didn’t call what so ever, much to my annoyance as I wanted to rule out Siberian Chiffchaff but visually it looked pretty common. I also had a Pied Wagtail that could have easily past for a White Wagtail if it weren’t for the fact that it had tiny faded spots on the mantle which county recorder Darryl Spittle pointed out to me. Turns out it’s a first winter Pied Wagtail which do have very similar features over-all to White Wag.

There were plenty of Redwing, Fieldfare and a noisy Green Woodpecker around and with the shear amount of birds, plenty of predators too with a male Sparrowhawk and female Peregrine working the area.

Autumn Migration

To be fair, we haven’t had a bad Autumn so far with regard to the variety of migratory birds turning up. The usual Redwing, Fieldfare and Brambling were a little later than usual but in the last two weeks, with temps and weather deteriorating, we’ve just started to get some sizable flocks coming through. We also had a surprise visit on the Blorenge mountain in Blaenavon in the form of this beautiful male Snow Bunting. Hard to believe this male was totally black and white in it’s breeding plumage but as they move off the snow-covered mountains from anywhere between Scotland to Alaska, they usually end up wintering in areas where there isn’t any snow, so they actually darken their overall plumage to help keep them camouflaged to their surroundings. We usually get one or two arriving this time of year, often picked up on coastal paths, especially during cold winters where they’re pushed further south. If you got to see the bird yourself, you would have seen how tame the bird was around people. It would literally walk straight up to you and feed around your feet: You tend to find birds that are from these high altitudes or harsh environments, that they aren’t scared of people, after all, they very rarely encounter people, therefore haven’t learned to fear us.
As you can see, some of the photo’s are in the actual car park! I included a picture of my car wheel as the background to give you a sense of place.

I’m almost done with my Mimicking Firecrest writeup. It’s taken some time to accumulate my data recordings into anything conclusive but I realise now that It’s not always possible to draw conclusions from one season so I’m not putting too much pressure on myself. I have found a few more mimicking species this week though, this time in the form of a Blue Tit, which was following a Long-tailed Tit flock around, as most small birds do this time of year for security. This mimic makes a lot more sense to me, as in order to keep up with a Long-tailed Tit flock, which are constantly on the move, you either need the same high energy, or you need a tactic to slow them down, which is exactly what I believe this bird is doing. Long-tailed Tit families are loyal to each other and won’t leave a man behind. They ensure this by constantly communicating with each other to ensure they don’t stray away too far from each other and it’s this behaviour that I believe the Blue Tit is exploiting. By mimicking the LTT call, whether the Long-tailed Tits think it’s one of their own or not, they will come to investigate, which is exactly what happened in the middle of this recording where a single call made was actually a LTT. See if you can pick out which one is the real LTT, if you can’t, then the Blue Tit has done a good job!

Dragon's Continued

I know insects aren’t everybody’s cup of tea, but the way I see it, I have all winter to concentrate on Birds and Mammals and these guys aren’t going to be around for much longer. I was reminded how short this period was during my pursuit to increase the dragonfly species count at The Canyon this year. I’ve noticed that there weren’t any Chasers or Skimmers present when there is usually several buzzing around the lake on a hot sunny day like today. I was reminded on Twitter though, that the season for these types of Dragonfly have already passed and most of the adults have reproduced and have since perished during August. It’s such a short life for a Dragonfly and they all have slightly different peak emergence times throughout the year, which makes a lot of sense from a survival perspective, as this way, they aren’t competing for the same food supplies. Black Darters emerge rather late in the year in comparison to other Darter species, so thankfully there are lots around. 10+ Males are 3 females were spotted in the last two days, which is more than I’ve ever seen at the canyon.

Black Darter Pair - Left Male | Right Female

I’ve known of a couple sites in Ebbw Vale for a while now that holds a rarer hawker species called a Brown Hawker. I’ve been meaning to make a visit myself and was given an extra push after a tweet from Lee Gregory who reported 2 Brown Hawkers at Waun-y-Pound ponds. As the weather was good and I had a meeting in Ebbw Vale, I went straight over there and connected with 2 Brown Hawkers almost instantly upon arriving at the middle pond. I didn’t realise they were so big! I watched one catch a mating pair of Common Darters and it actually ate them both! What a monster! I couldn’t get a great pic but the one I did get shows just how camouflaged they are and also the habitat they chose to roost in which is primarily heather patches.

Brown Hawker

Brown Hawker

Here’s a Southern Hawker, Painted Lady Butterfly and some more of a very obliging male Black Darter.