Viewing entries tagged
Spring Flowers

Signs of Spring

Waking up to the sound of birds singing and a Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming away this morning was enough to set me up nicely for the day.
This warm bright weather has really kicked spring off with Birds of Prey displaying, Frogs laying eggs and lots of birds nest building. I get so excited for spring this time of year that I forget that our winter migrants have to endure the long journey home before they can even start to think about breeding. A reminder came in the form of a Redwing in song during this mornings dawn chorus.

Two days ago I drove to Symonds Yat view point as the sun was shining and the warm conditions were perfect to view an early spring spectacle. The Goshawk display is truly awesome to watch and theres no better place to watch it than Symonds Yat Rock. It didn’t take long to spot them in the air along with several Buzzards. A lot of people struggle to spot these Birds at Yat Rock and if you’re one of them, my advice is to look more closely at the larger birds of prey and zone in on their flight pattern. Buzzards will be flying slow, often soaring with their typical V shape wing position. Goshawks also soar, but when they do so, their wings remain flat. Their wings are so broad that they appear short in length compared to the size of the body. The most obvious features though are the wing beats that beat at a much faster rate to a Buzzard and as a result, they cut thru the air like a Jet fighter. Buzzards take a long time to gain a decent altitude where Goshawks just seem to glide thru altitude like it’s nothing. In the pic below shows a Male that was chasing what appears to be a Juvenile Female. Hard to say what was going on in the short time I observed them but it was really great to view them thru the scope. A Single female Peregrine was sat up in a tree above the nesting cliff too. It won’t be long till they get into the full swing of spring either.

Goshawk Displaying Gavin Vella

With spring flowers emerging everywhere, It won’t be long before we start to see insects popping up with them. Red Admirals, Brimstones and Peacocks have already been spotted so far but by far my favourite is when we get the Orange-tips. Now I’m sporting a Macro lens, i’ll likely be photographing a lot more bugs this year so apologies to the Birders who only read my blog for bird news.

Orange-tip Butterfly

I’ve got some other surprises coming up soon, some big stepping stones for me, but it’s early days and don’t want to speak too soon. So you’ll have to wait and see.

Colourless Wild Flowers

What you may not know about me is, I'm actually colourblind. Contrary to popular belief, that doesn't mean I cannot see colour. My form of colourblindness makes me less sensitive to Reds and more sensitive to Greens. Theres no wonder that my favourite colour is Green right? 
Growing up, colourblindness did actually affect my life, especially during my Art classes. I tend to always favour drawing without colour entirely, simply because I would sometimes colour the Sun green and the sea purple without even knowing. It was frustrating, especially when my Art GCSE results came back pretty poorly.. Something that came as a massive shock to me and my family.. 

It certainly doesn't affect my birding, but may affect my photography, especially when editing photographs of flowers: something I actively avoid for fear of making it look like something it shouldn't. Below are some wild flowers that I've photographed at Llandegfedd so far this year. Starting with Cowslip, Bugle, Ferns and lastly a Red Campion. I see these flowers completely different to you, unless of course you have the same colourblindness as me? 

While we're on this topic, I've actually decided to do something about my colourblindness, thanks to a company called 'Enchroma':  They've managed to design a lens that corrects colourblindness! All while protecting my very sensitive green eyes from UV rays. (Something I've also struggled with in bright light). They aren't cheap, but it's worth the shot. I can't imagine what it must be like to experience the full spectrum of colour and hopefully I can edit my photographs to their full potential if the glasses work. If they work that well.. I may want to edit all my photographs from scratch.. but lets not get ahead of myself just yet. 

The Island

The Island

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