Blog Content — Gavin Vella

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Schoeps

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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.

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Skimming over Summer

I’m back! For now.. Starting to realise that this is less of a blog and more of an account of how busy I am. This summer being quite an exceptionally busy one but even more so now that we have decided to move home! Probably the worst time to buy a house but also the best time to sell, as the market is very high at the moment. We have found a new home so provided everything stays on track, we’ll be looking to move before Christmas. Fingers crossed! Excited, but also very anxious, especially with the increase in energy prices..

What does this mean for me? Well, in the new house we’ll be building an office so I’ll have a more productive space to work from. More space in general, but despite being located not too far from where we are now, it is on the edge of the mountainside so we get closer access to what little wild area is left in Torfaen.. Having a patch that I can walk to from the house is quite beneficial to me and it’s something I’ve really missed since the loss of land at south Sebastopol, where 1600 homes are currently being built. It was a beautiful and still is a beautiful spot, but it had wildflower meadows that were full of Orchids, Butterflies, Grasshoppers, and even had specialist species like Glow Worms, Otter, Adders, Barn Owls, Kestrels and much more. So to see it gone right before lockdowns hit, we really felt trapped with no wild areas to escape to. Something that has proven to be quite important to my own mental health. Of course, we’re back to some sort of normality now so having my freedom has really helped. Despite the freedom, this year we really haven’t travelled that far, staying mostly local, with the acceptation of one planned trip to Skomer Island that Jodie organised for my Birthday, followed by a few more trips to the coastline as we got the taste for the sea. That was such a great trip and well worth the miles we racked up. I’ll include some images below from my travels and I’ll end with a few sound recordings from a new pair of microphones that I plan on using for scheduled sound walks in the coming weeks.

I’ll give some more updates of Nightjar season on a later blog, as it’s been a great season, even if I was too busy to enjoy the second half of it. For now, here’s some sound recordings of Great Green Bush-crickets and some soothing sounds of Waves from some of my trips to the coastline.

Here’s a slomo version of the sound circket, as the full speed recording is quite high pitched and sadly not all can here it anymore.

One for the headphones, especially if you’re struggling to sleep.

It’s been a stupidly dry and hot summer, so the sound of this rain was really welcomed!

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Breeding Season

What a month so far! No idea how I’m managing to fit all this in but it’s been such a special spring and despite a delay in the breeding season, things have burst into life, warm temps, lots of emerging insects, moths, dragonflies and just in time for our breeding birds to feed their chicks. I was beginning to worry about my Nightjar this year as Moth counts have been super low, which has resulted in them delaying their egg laying. Some have only just paired up which is crazy and overall I’m seeing less than half the pairs compared to the previous year. The bracken has come up quite fast as always though, so their habitat is looking perfect for egg laying. This month I’ve lead a few walks, one for In Our Nature CIC which was an introduction to Bird Song, with a perfect sized group. We aim todo another by the end of June to continue our progress. It’s great to see people show an interest in learning more about the natural world, as it really does help us find our place in the world. The other walk was my annual Nightjar walk for Gwent Ornithological Society, which was well attended with 20 people, but so many more people expressed their interest in another Nightjar walk as they weren’t able to attend the first, so we’ve arranged todo another on June 18th. Details of which to be found on the GOS website.

I’m not a twitcher, but it’s always nice to see or hear things I’ve never seen before, so every year I try to add a few more to the list of experiences. One big one has been hearing a Nightingale, as we don’t get them here in Wales and the closest know location is Highnam Woods in Gloucester. Two attempts, one in April (too early) and one in June (too late), so next year I must make more of an effort in May. It’s just difficult to enjoy spring as breeding bird survey season is the busiest time of year for me.

As you’ll see in the pics below I’ve still been quite busy. My nightjar have seen some drama, with one of my males injuring his nose. Still don’t even know if he’s survived his injury but he was paired up so I hope he does.

Recordings

For the minority sound recorders reading this, I’ve been beta testing a microphone configuration, using two Schoeps CCM 2’s (Loan from Schoeps) and my own Schoeps CCM 4 inside a Telinga/Rycote dish system. I’m always striving to improve the sound quality of my gear and with this setup, I really feel like I’ve hit the limits of what’s actually possible. The CCM 4 is the most accurate sounding microphone I’ve ever used, and in combination with two CCM 2’s outside of the dish, it really makes for a powerful setup in the right hands. I say in the right hands, because using the CCM 4 inside the dish, hand held, is quite difficult, as the handling noise compared to many of the more affordable Telinga Setups is no comparison. It just shows that in order to get the most accurate recording as far as sound quality is concerned, it comes at a cost. For me though, this cost is well worth it, as it’s forced me to approach my recordings differently. Most of the recordings below are still hand held, but for static subjects I’ve taken to using a monopod when possible, as it just gives me that extra stability and far less handling noise for longer time periods.

One of my favourite experiences using this new setup was actually at the River Warbler ‘twitch’ at RSPB Ham Wall Nature Reserve over the weekend. It’s a magical reserve that I’ve blogged about many times. It’s potentially my favourite reserve of all time, full of spectacular species, most of which are quite rare breeders anywhere else in the Uk. The River Warbler was the first in the country in almost 11 years I believe, so it’s a super rare bird and a first for me, but I was less eager to see it, and more excited to hear this incredible sound! They are very similar looking to a Grasshopper Warbler in terms of shape and size, but generally quite dark, with most of their more interesting features on the breast and under-tail coverts, but like I said, It’s all about that sound for me! and there’s nothing quite like it. Savi’s Warbler is more electric, Grasshopper Warbler is more like a Grasshopper but this sound is clearly a sound that is designed to carry over fast flowing water and is so much louder than any other bird I’ve he

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Llandegfedd Rewards

Just when you’re having a bad day, struggling to get out the house and motivated due to health reasons, by which time the day is almost gone but I arrived at the north end of Llandegfedd at 3:30pm, to be rewarded with a fishing Osprey right in front of the car park. I didn’t even need to leave the car park as the bird patrolled the perimeter, giving me several hover flights as he hunted the shallows. Moments later a Red Kite flew into the same air space, and it was nice to see the size comparison between the two species. Kites certainly have the bulk but there didn’t look like there was much in the wing length between the two.

I’ve started to turn my attention to our spring bug life, of which there were plenty on the wing during this short lived heatwave. I clocked 24c in my car! and by next week we’ll be experiencing another cold snap with -1 night-time temps. This weather is truly crazy. If that’s not a sign of global warming in April I don’t know what is.

Good to see my local population of Violet Oil-beetles out in good numbers with over 20 adults and plenty of larvae on the lesser celandines. Andrenna Sp. present but not sure what species, not sure if the picture will show enough of it’s features to identify it to Sp.

Sound

I always make the effort to record Yellowhammer when able, not just because they sound amazing but because I’m hoping I one day record a different dialect. The predominant dialect in Wales is XIB but there are small isolated populations that sing different dialect, which might suggest that those birds originate from a different area, possibly even a different country.

It was nice to see a Female out in the open for a change too, as they usually stay hidden, tucked up in the middle of a Gorse bush. You can see how well her rustic colours blend into the twig colours: making them much harder to spot when they’re sitting on the nest.

Yellowhammer F - SR1A1767.jpg

A few other showy songsters came in the form of a Nuthatch, which is another personal favourite of mine. They have such a rich quality to all of their calls, and they have quite a variety of different song types. This shows two types you’ll likely hear in the spring but it also shows their high pitch squeal call which can catch some people out when heard on its own.

Common species non-the-less, but it’s cool hearing the subtle differences between the Robin’s winter and spring song. Here’s a good example of a spring song, which tends to have more heft behind the lower notes, and less scratchy higher notes.

By far my favourite recording though was of this blackbird, which was at quite the distance away, 20m or so, but thanks to the Schoeps CCM 4 inside the dish, it makes it sound like the microphone is right in-front of it’s bill. I’ve never experienced this level of quality inside a dish before, it honestly sounds like a shotgun recording. Very pleased.

Nocmig

It’s been a mixed bag so far but really please with some of the birds that I’ve got already. Waders are just starting to pour in, with Golden Plover flocks, Curlew, Grey Heron and Little Ringed Plovers, but for me, hearing migrating Blackcap, singing their migratory song, is pretty epic. How on earth these birds navigate the darkness I do not know.

I’m still waiting on confirmation from a few mysteries too, which a probable Bittern and White-front Goose flock, but they’re a bit distant so might have to let those go.

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