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Photography

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.

Happy New Year

Well, considering my last blog was titled ‘I’m back’ all the way back in February, I wouldn’t take this blog very serious if it involves speaking about my goals for 2024, as they never seem to materialise lol..

As soon as the breeding season hits, my work load just skyrockets and I rarely get the time to do photography and sound recording anymore, let alone blog. We all need money though and without it I couldn’t do all these wonderful things anyway. Gear is so expensive these days and with constant new innovations, there’s always something to spend money on..

Photography


Below, seems like a lot of photos but most of these images were taken on just a handful of trips and most from the comfort of my garden for the latter half of the year.

Skomer Island was certainly highlight, which it always is, but every trip to the coast is uplifting.
Otherwise, I spent my usual free time over the summer months monitoring over 20 pairs of Nightjar and Long-Eared Owls, both for personal and licensed work. Overall though I spent more time searching new areas than I did re-visiting old ones. For instance I spent a fair few hours in search of Club-tailed Dragonflies along the River Usk, (with no luck might I add) but if you don’t look, you don’t find, and I’m not afraid of going home empty handed anymore. A recent trip to Whiteford point was a nice refreshing example of that for me, as I left the camera at home. It’s nice to be free of that pressure of ‘getting nice images’ and just enjoying yourself, being outdoors and taking it all in. Strip yourself back and leave the camera at home, it’ll do you the world of good. Oh, and buy yourself a pair of binoculars if you’re still relying on other people finding the good stuff for you ;)

New Home & Garden

Amongst everything else, the new house has taken priority above all this year, with so much that needs doing. The Garden being the biggest project left to complete, with every single bit of wood, completely rotten, so it needs to go. Some how though, I did find the time to dig a pond, which actually resulted in me getting a mega garden tick in the form of an Osprey!! lol. Would upload the phone video but internet is terrible here. So here are some funny progress pics instead and a screen grab of the Osprey.

Sound Recording

My sound recording journey this year really paints more of a picture of the seasons than any of my photographs do really. Even though I still wish I had more time for it, with sound, you don’t just need free time, you need good weather, so it’s even harder to find those windows of opportunity. Low wind is my friend though, no matter what the temp, even if it's wet, if it’s windy, it’s hard to work around with a parabolic dish.

The first recording of spring migrants for me this year was this Tree Pipit, at a time were there really wasn’t very many in the county yet, this guy was pumping it out on a clearfel.

Skipping ahead, it’s always nice to hear the sound of mammals. They’re a difficult subject to record as you may have one in front of you but there’s no guaranty you’ll get any vocals, so with mammals like this Water Shrew, you just have to make the most of the opportunity you’re given. This was during a Lapwing Survey on the Gwent Levels.

Whilst in full swing of the busy season, spring migration can turn up anything but I don’t think anybody was expecting a few Great Reed Warblers, and this has got to be one of my favourites of the year, even though I didn’t get a very good image, the sound recording was far more impressive and it’s not very often you’ll get a nice singing male performing like this in the Uk. Another first for me from Hamm Wall Nature Reserve. Does this beat the River Warbler from last year? I’ll post that recording below so you can compare ;)

This was always going to be a length blog… Below, an annual trip to hear the Nightingales at highnam woods is turning out to be a little bitter-sweat, as whilst I absolutely love hearing them, it’s so annoying that the woods are so close to the road and there really is no escaping that sound. If there’s one thing i’d love todo in 2024, it’s find a better location to record these fast declining species.

A few of licensed Long-eared Owl work this year

I think I’ll leave it there lol, trying to cram in what should have been several blogs into one but I hope you’ve enjoyed listening to at-least some of it. If any, listen to this garden warbler with a good pair of headphones. They’ve got to be one of my favourite songsters. That tonality just carries itself and needs no accompany.

In Our Nature CIC

Just a final plug for my business, ION is still doing really well and has been so busy this year, running weekly guided walks since April. The project ‘Take A Moment’ was granted in April and is running to April 2024! So if you haven’t got on the band wagon yet, check out our What’s On Page. We’ll be running plenty more specialist Saturday events too, with Fungi, Otters, Tree ID, Spring Flowers, Bird Song and many more that have been quite popular so far. Here’s some pictures of our events, mostly of the back of my head lol. Quite proud of the amount we’ve achieved this year, with the new house, ontop of all my ecology work in the private sector, Bats, Birds, Reptiles and Amphibian work. It’s been a crazy one, but all worth it.

Happy New Year all, hope you all have a fantastic 2024, especially if 2023 has been a difficult one for you. Now get outdoors and enjoy the planet before we screw it up even more!! The clock is ticking.

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!

Spring has Sprung

With more and more spring migrants turning up each day, spring has truly sprung and the last two days it’s really felt like it. Saw my first Wheatear in Blaenavon and lots more reports along with Sand Martin, Blackcap and Chiffchaff, though I wonder how many of those actually wintered this year as this winter saw Swallows wintering in double figures, which is a true indication of how global warming is affecting our migratory patterns. For Crossbill though, spring is pretty much over already! which is insane! Proof of this is found in the below recording, which is the sound of a fledged Crossbill, begging their parents for food. Crossbill can breed as early as August and throughout the winter, depending on the availability of cones. This is why It gets particularly frustrating when I see woodland clearance throughout the winter that lines up with bumper cone crops as they are most likely disturbing breeding Crossbill. This happened at Wentwood earlier in the year and if we’re to continue producing wood in this manner, we need to be more aware of these cycles in our trees that span 3-4 years, and in some tree species even longer.

As the sun continues to rise above 10c our hardy reptiles species become more active and despite a lack of Adder found, I did have a intimate connection with this Common Lizard, who came out from the shadows whilst I was photographing candle-snuff fungi. I was on the phone at the time too making quite a bit of noise but clearly sunning itself was more important and it didn’t see me as a threat. This was evident as it allowed me to get within centimetres without moving an inch.

You’ll notice that I’m including landscape images for the first time. Don’t get used to it as I’m only borrowing this lens lol. It’s a 16-35mm which is quite a handy focal length for those wider perspectives which I just simply haven’t been able todo before. The lens is going back this week so I’ll have to start saving the pennies to purchase my own as I’ve quite enjoyed using it.

Stopped off along the canal on the way to Abergavenny where I found an isolated population of Violet Oil-beetles. There won’t be a year that I don’t set aside time to observe these spectacular species of beetle. They are so delicate it makes you wonder how on earth they survive at all and their life cycle is so dependant on the success of solitary bee’s that it makes they a really good indicator species. I won’t tell the story again, I seem to blog about this every year but if you don’t know, check this PDF out from Buglife.

Amongst the emerging insects are plenty more singing birds, so here’s a few recordings from various places, including the song of a Firecrest which is another new territory to the south of Gwent. These birds really are doing well in Gwent and are on the right road to increasing their numbers.

You’ll notice in the background if you listen carefully that there are a few Brambling calls nearby. We later spotted a small flock feeding on the ground but I doubt they’ll be around much longer.

This song has got to be a favourite of many, as our uplands are nothing without this cascading sound in the sky. A difficult species to record as it’s always windy up on the hills and any song in flight is hard to keep track of without creating handling noise. That and the fact that they just get so high that you can barely see them, you just have to watch the signal getting weaker and weaker as they rise but keep at it as they’ll soon come back down, and with it, interject more cascading notes as a cue.

I’ll end with a memorable wildlife photography moment, where over 50 Rats were making the most of this bin which has been chained to a fence instead of it being concreted into the ground. As a result they have learned to climb the vertical fence poles, grab the chain and jump in lol. It’s quite entertaining watching the young Rats also try get in there, as they don’t always get it right and I watched multiple miss the lip of the bin and somersault back to the ground. Uninjured of course as these guys are hardy and this sort of stuff comes natural to them. I know they get bad press, but they are just cleaning up after our mess. Nothing gets wasted in nature, and I’m sure there will be some local Foxes and Owls that’ll be hunting them.

Pre-spring

I’ve always thought that spring was my favourite season, and it probably is. But I’ve got to admit, Spring wouldn’t be quite the same if it weren’t for those little signs in the winter period that mark the start of new beginnings. The more I learn, the earlier these signs are, which is really making be appreciate the colder months more. Between that, and climate change, Winters don’t feel nearly as long for me as they used to.. Daffodils have been sprouting in my Garden since early January and on the warmer days I’ve seen plenty of nest building, frog spawning and flowers emerging. One flower I always seem to miss though is actually from a Hazel Tree, as they are very small and being colourblind (with Red) I find them hard to spot unless I’m quite close up.

You’ll notice a lot more landscape shots than usual and that’s because I’m lending a lens from a friend (16-35mm) which is the widest lens I’ve ever used so I’m quite enjoying it. I’ve never really been bothered about landscapes, mostly because I’ve always used crop-sensor bodies which don’t exploit the full width of the lens.

In Our Nature CIC

Be sure to check out our event page as we start to dish out this years outdoor walks: Starting with a Bird Song ID walk and a Noticing Nature Walk, which was one of our most popular walk types last year.

Winter Summary

Well I can’t say that the Christmas season was ‘busy’ but after weeks worth of terrible weather in combo with doing my back in, I spent most of my time at home but so far the new year has brought a few windows in the weather, and despite the fact that the temps have dropped some what, with minus temps at night / early mornings, the sun has still been strong enough to spur on early signs of spring already! With lots of budding tree’s, emerging spring flowers, Butterflies on the wing, more singing bird species by the day and even nest building. I spent a few of the sunny days we’ve had so far with my Partner on some beautiful sandy walks around the Ogmore Coastline and some rather wet and muddy walks in the Forest of Dean: Two of our favourite places to be after experiencing a bit of cabin fever over the Christmas period. After a quick procedure in Hospital, I’m almost back into normal routine and I’m very much looking to get back to work and to enjoy the signs of the fast approaching spring.

For the photographers interested in gear, all bar the swan pics were taken with the 2x extender on the 400 DO ii / R6 and some even with both the 2x and 1.4x extender stacked ontop of each other. This combo wouldn’t even work on my 7Dmk ii but the focusing speed on the R6 is so good, it’s a combo i’ll be using more often.

Whilst winter is far from over just yet, I did have some winter goals which mostly included species I wished to sound recording. Top of the list was Dipper, which I did manage to share with you on my last blog, but I also really wanted to record Crossbill singing and with a bumper crop of cones this winter, it seemed to be the perfect year. My first attempt after a kick out of the door by my friend Craig Constance and here were the results: I got two close encounters with two different males below and also a recording showing their ‘excitement call’ which is said to reaffirm bonds between pairs, but in my observations, they also seem to use this call to alert other crossbill that they are grouping up to have a drink. You’ll notice this time of year that you get sometimes large flocks of crossbill all drinking together at a puddle and they do this together as it’s a time where they are most vulnerable to predators. Usually one or two Crossbill will remain high up in a tree with good visibility all around just to keep a watch out and once they are done, they usually split off and continue with feeding. You’ll probably already know, that Crossbill breed according to the availability of cones, which means they could breed in the depths of winter. There were a few Crossbill collecting material so I presume they are breeding right now and there were plenty of song flight displays, which is the only recording I didn’t manage to capture, so if I don’t manage to get that this year, that’s something I’ll have to wait for. Either way, I’m very please with the recordings below.

Autumn Summary

Well, what a spectacular autumn that was! We haven’t had a proper autumn like that for a long time. For around 5-6 years in a row now we’ve either had strong winds at peak autumn colours or well before the autumn colours even kick in. We can’t complain this year though as it was perfect and for a good few weeks too. Along with the colours it’s been a fantastic year for Fungi too, so I’ve spent some time picking out some of my favourites in the woods at various local locations. My last blog I spoke about a new camera, and no I’ve haven’t won the lottery, but this time around I’ve also replaced my lens too, with a slightly longer ‘400mm’ instead of a 300mm. Despite the fact that it’s a longer focal length, this lens is slightly shorter in length and much lighter in weight, making it overall easier to hand hold, especially given that the built in image stabilisation offers two-three more stops of stabilisation than my older heavier 300mm. Canon has been able todo this thanks to a technique called ‘Diffractive Optic Technology’ which in theory sounds quite simple, as they have split an element in half in such a way that it retains it’s magnification. It’s actually an ingenious idea that’s quite difficult to achieve and even Canon took two attempts to get it performing on the same level as their other super telephoto prime lenses. I won’t bore you with all the details. For me it’s the ultimate trade-off between performance and weight, which has become quite important to me lately as I’ve been suffering with back issues. This design however does come at a cost, not just to the bank account, but also to the ‘bokeh’. Bokeh is a term used to describe everything outside the main focus plane, whether that be the foreground or the background. Where this design compromises a little is when you have certain light conditions in the image where ‘bokeh’ has to render bright objections. It’s most noticeable if there are pure lights or reflections in the background, and instead of getting pure circular ‘bokeh balls’ you will have bokeh balls with other smaller circles inside. If you look at the diagram below, you can see why this happens, as the image to the left is essentially what the light has to pass thru, leaving you with circles in the image. You won’t see this on anything other than those rare circumstances where bokeh balls are pure and honestly, when are they ever pure in nature! Almost never, so it really doesn’t bother me in the slightest. In the diagram below it also shows you two different versions of DO options, the middle one was Canon’s first design, which meant it had an air gap between the lenses. This resulted in loss of contrast, especially noticeable when used with extenders. The third right image is their most recent design which is even more ingenious as it affectively does the same job, but without an official air gap. Clever Canon. So, fingers crossed this lens will serve me well, for now I’m happy.

Here’s a mixture of images taken locally with both the 400 and my 100mm macro, in various places. What amazes me looking back on these images is not that they’re great images, I’m just shocked I managed to get any of them.. as 90% were taken in horrific lighting conditions. So bad that I doubt I would have been able to get any usable shots with my previous setup, so for that I am happy.

Sound Recording

Just to give you an idea of how mild it has been this autumn / winter. I recorded Roesel’s Bush-cricket’s actively moving around and singing, on the 17th of November! Absolutely crazy! I consider Roesel’s to be a true summer species, only really singing on those piping hot summer days. Granted it wasn’t giving it the full effort but I still can’t believe it had enough energy for this amount in November. #Globalwarming

The same day I managed to catch up with what’s most likely to be the same Willow Tit I recorded last year. Sadly this time it was on its own. If you listen towards the end it does some pretty epic alarm call which I have heard them do before but it’s quite a difficult one to hear in the field as it’s not that loud.

I’ll end on a high note as I’ve been meaning to set aside some time to record a Dipper singing for years but given that my local population along the Afon Llwyd is quite an urban river, I always put it off for fear of recording too much human activity. That and the fact that the Afon Llwyd is one of the fastest flowing rivers in Wales, so it’s quite loud. That said, I recorded this guy singing quite close to a waterfall and a busy school, so was surprised I managed as well as this given the circumstances. That morning I lead a walk with In Our Nature CIC and we managed to listen to two Dipper deep in a song battle, which ended up with a chase. It was great for the group to witness this and it was just the kick up the butt I needed to get down there myself with my recording gear. Lesson of the day, don’t let people put you off.


Early Autumn Summary

I’m actually enjoying taking a little break from the blog lately but I do apologise to those that like to have regular updates. I’ve been in the process of changing out all my camera gear so there has been a lot of testing and less exploring. Here are a few photographs with the Canon R6, which is my first mirrorless camera and also my first full frame camera, so it’s taking a little time to get used to. So far though I’m really enjoying the focusing system, the noise performance and overall the speed. I previously used the Canon 7D mk ii which is a tank of a camera, but it’s beyond it’s life expectancy and the usability, despite still working, isn’t very inspiring, what with the fact that I have to turn the dial 8 times before it starts to do what I want it to lol, which isn’t ideal when photographing time sensitive wildlife.

SO! Here’s are a few photo’s from that transition. Same two lens combo: Canon 300 2.8 IS with 1.4 and 2x ii extenders, and a 100mm 2.8 Macro IS.

Starting with my last Nightjar photos of the year, in the form of a Chick which stayed quite late in the season with parents sticking close nearby.

I’ll end with a random doorstep photo of a young Sparrowhawk that managed to fly into my upstairs window. Thankfully only a few displaced feathers and he shortly flew off strongly, weaving his way back thru the woodland opposite my house.

Summer Sound

Lots to share, lots to talk about as always. Blogging for an entire month is proving to be difficult but I’ll give it a shot!! Below I’ll start with a mixture of photographs from various places, but most of which were taken at Tirpentwys Nature Reserve. Not only did I find Bee Orchids in flower this year but there happens to be a spectacular show of Common Spotted, Southern Marsh (Also hybrids between the two), but also hundreds of Pyramidal Orchids! I’ve never seen such a show before, it’s really worth going to see. At the reserve I also had a Hobby, Crossbill, Greenfinch, Redpoll and a good number of migrating Swifts overhead.

Sound Recording

It’s been a good month for sound recording but things are starting to taper off now. Less and less birds in the dawn chorus already, with some mornings just a lone Song Thrush. It’s just that time of year where most of the breeding birds are done, and only the birds pushing into a second or third clutches are continuing to hold territories. It’s not over yet though and I’ll be lapping up as much of it as I can before the autumn arrives!

For our Nightjar though things have just reached peak, with some birds feeding chicks, others still on eggs, some may not have even laid yet! It’s really been an odd year for Nightjar and as a result, I’ve decided this year to concentrate my efforts on a variety of different locations as my local birds have really not had a good year so far this year and they’ve also chosen to nest quite close to a Goshawk nest so I’m avoiding the area for a number of reasons and visiting only at night.

Ok, kicking this off with a Nightjar recording, one of many this season but by far my favourite, as it shows three different calls, starting with a Male alarm call, which is softer than the female, followed by a stellar performance, and ending with his female flying thru his airspace, which resulted in him restarting the song, just so he could end with his spectacular showboating clapping performance. Then you can hear the lower pitched croak from the female, followed by the higher pitched fluty call of the male. It’s a great reference recording of the variety of sounds that Nightjar can produce.

Almost every night now I’m hearing Tawny Owl chicks and couldn’t resist recording them last night.

Grasshopper season is well underway and I look forward to hearing my first electric Roesel’s Bush Crickets. As usual though, I’ve slowed this recording down so the pitch sits in a more audible range as they can be quite difficult to hear.

The Roesel’s Bush Crickets were at the north end of Llandegfedd, and singing also was a stunning Reed Bunting, which didn’t breed there last year so it was nice to hear him back on territory. Onsite also was a good number of Common Sandpiper, which are just finishing up breeding, so are already starting to move south.

As I said, there isn’t much singing now, but Blackcaps seem to be still giving it a good effort.

I was going to devote an entire blog to this Chaffinch song, as the first three phrases appear to be quite unique, at-least they do to my ears. This was from one of my work places in Swansea, where the entire upland population there, seem to emphasise the middle section of the song, with these defined descending notes, that sound very similar to the tune of a Redwing Song. You can hear three different types of phrases in this performance but it’s the first three that I’m referring to. This tune is very similar to that found in other sub-species of Chaffinch from around the world, so it makes me wonder if this phrase goes way back to a time before the species split, as even the endemic species in the canary islands seem to have this. My local population however, doesn’t have this at all, so it makes me wonder how much of a regional accent is at play here.

Here’s a screenshot of the section I’m referring to. The left phrase shows the descending notes that really have emphasis over the rest of the phrase and the second phrase is the more typical monotone middle trill that I’m used to hearing in my local area.

Screenshot 2021-06-30 at 20.12.44.png

Nocmig

Nocmig is starting to pick up again! and it kicked off with my first ever Quail! Was a beauty! Since then I’ve had my first Redshank of the post-breeding movement, along with Common Sandpiper, Little Ringed Plover, Oystercatcher and plenty of Moorhen / Coot. Other than that I’ve been getting more and more Swifts moving on ‘morn-mig’ and I intend on upping my game this autumn, as I’ve purchase two second hand ‘Audiomoths’ which are small remote, programable sound devices that are fully waterproof and capable of automaticity recording dusk till dawn, which is perfect for nocturnal migration and due to their small size, it makes them so easy to hide. I also intend on using them to aid my Nightjar research as I can identify new sites by places these devices in key areas, without having to spend multiple nights out in the field to find out for myself. It really increases my chances as you can’t be everywhere at the same time.

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