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The British

Not all about Birds!.. today at-least

Despite having a fantastic day for Birds today with great company from local Bird ringer Steve Carter, I have to admit, the insect and plant life stole the show for me. Especially after finding two firsts, in the form of a Green Hairstreak Butterfly and a Fairy Longhorn Moth, both of which are extremely small but make up for their size in sheer beauty! Both were also found on 'The British', one of the many lost and forgotten sites in the valleys that continues to surprise me. How lucky we are to have such places on our doorstep. I only wished more people could appreciate it as this site also so happens to be heavily abused and vandalised by locals.

 

Yellow Archangel 

Green Hairstreak Butterfly

Fairy Longhorn Moth

Beautiful Demoiselle 

Beautiful Demoiselle 

The British

What a place! Can't believe they want to build houses here.. Had some great birds on the british, with Red Grouse, Reed Bunting, Redstart, Wheatear, Cuckoo, Wood Warbler and a Ringed Whinchat that appears to be one of Steven Smiths birds from Blaenavon. Whinchats are fresh in from Africa at the moment so it will be interesting to see if this particular Bird will carry on moving back to its breeding grounds from which it was born, or whether it will hold a new territory nearby. Either way, what a great success story. If we can possible catch the  bird or get a better photo of the ring, we will be able to find out exactly how old this bird is. 

Towards the evening I stopped off at Llandegfedd, just before we were hit by a hail storm, only to find lots of Orange-tips pairing up. <3 Love is in the air. 

Pre-spring

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.

Great Crested Grebes Courtship

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. 

Wild Primrose

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. 

Frogspawn 

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.  

Reindeer Moss - cladonia impexa & Silky Wall Feather-moss - homalothecium sericeum

Singing in a cloud

Not the best day for Photography with fairly thick fog covering most of Pontypool. Was hoping that going further up the mountain I may get above the fog but it was ten times worse. Didn't seem to put the birds off though and luckily for me, I brought my recording gear. 

My recording gear is perfect for days like today where visibility is poor and sound becomes a much more reliable way of picking out birds in the fog. Lucky for me I can ID them by sound alone and I picked out some notable birds today as a result of this. I heard Crossbill, Redwing, Fieldfare and a single Curlew flying in the thick fog.. which I would have missed if it wasn't for my parabolic dish. 

On the way up the mountain I checked on my local gorse patches to see if the Yellowhammers were back in song and despite being back on their breeding grounds, I only picked out a few calls, no full songs just yet. Not that recording them was even possible today with over 20 off-road vehicles ripping up the coal spoils and creating a racket. Still not sure what I think about the off-road activity there, though for the time being, it doesn't seem to effect the Yellowhammers. 

Male Yellowhammer 

The British 

Something that was quite sad and certainly does effect the Yellowhammers was the burnt Gorse patches. This particular patch did home a Yellowhammer nest last season and its now completely ruined. 

Burnt Gorse