A sound you won't forget! Despite it being very simplistic, I never get bored of it. Take a closer listen and if you're sharp, you'll hear that it isn't repeating the same pattern, it constantly changes in a linear fashion.
Today I visited most of my local wild spaces and spent a fair few hours in the Blaenserchan Valley in search of Common Lizards. I did find some, 7 in-fact, but they were proving extremely difficult to find on this hot day. Usually you find them basking in the sun in the morning and evenings but it was so warm, they were disbursed all over the mountain in amongst the bracken.. Don't know if you've ever seen a Common Lizard in a mountain full of bracken but it literally is like finding a needle in a hay-stack. I came prepared for it however, even brought my chair along as I know, once you find one, you have to gain their trust by sitting and waiting until they realise you aren't going to hurt them. I got so close I could have reach out and touched a few. Blaenserchan was so good today, it brought me a 'lifer' in the form of a female Black Redstart! - Thanks to birding friend Tim Griffiths for that one as I surely would have missed it with my head stuck in the bracken looking for Lizards. I also found a Yellowhammer in the valley which I personally haven't seen there before. Insect life was great too with Bloody-nose Beetles, Green Tiger Beetles, a Stonefly, Brimstone Butterfly and many more.
Today was meant to be my start day at my new Job at Llandegfedd but for unforeseen reasons it has been delayed. This did however give me the opportunity to catch up on a bit of birding on my local patch and it really did deliver today. Beautiful weather and some pretty rare birds. The day started with a Sparrowhawk hunting through peoples gardens on my street, followed by a displaying Goshawk, Peregrine Falcon and then stumbling onto a Firecrest that had been ringed! It's always nice finding a rare bird with a ring on its leg, hopefully I can find out where it came from. To top it off, I get two Garganey at Llandeg Reservoir and upon trying to relocate them with birding friend Craig Constance, he spots a stunning male summer plumage Black-necked Grebe! Other notables, two Female Oil Beetles, plenty of Green Tiger Beetles along with some more Spring migrants - Swallows, Sand Martins, Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs. If I get the time this week I'll try get some sound recordings also, just need more hands! Difficult to do it all at the same time..
Have you seen a Swallow yet? If not, keep looking out for them. For some reason, every one I've seen so far has been flying south.. It would appear that some have overshot their mark and are having to make their way back down the Uk to more southern tempratures.
One more week before the Job change and I'm making the most of early spring in the beacons. I am going to miss working for BBNP, they have been so great to work for. This view was ontop of the Alt Mountain overlooking Talybont and Brecon. It's a fabulous view and well worth the climb. I luckily got to go up in a quad bike however and that seemed hard enough at times!
The Alt
This weekend I spent most of my time in the Garden. Last year we planted lots of wild flowers to encourage wildlife and this year we've installed a pond. Something I've always wanted to do! If you don't have a pond, get one! They can be really easy to make, can even make one out of an old washing bowl if you want to, and it will encourage wildlife, damselflies, dragonflies, toads, newts and frogs ect. Can't wait to see what ends up in the pond as we live just down from the canal so I'm sure something will end up in there. In the garden I also had a visit from a Dark-edged Bee Fly, 2 weeks earlier than in previous years. April is ahead of us however and it's my favourite month of the year! So much to see and hear with birdsong in full swing. With a new Job locally, I will get more time with my camera so will hopefully pick up where I left off.
Dark-edged Bee Fly
Gard Pond (In Progress)
If you like mimicking birds as much as I do, see if you can spot the Green Woodpecker impression this Song Thrush does half way through. Beautiful song that was well worth running back to the car for to get my recording gear.
Today was a pretty incredible day for Birding in Gwent. This morning started pretty early, arriving at Blaenserchan before sunrise to get an early look at the reported Great Grey Shrike. I bumped into local ecologist Steve Williams and as we searched together for the Shrike, we were greeted instead with a pretty large flock of 150+ Brambling! This year has been terrible for Brambling with winter numbers quite below average so it was nice to see such a large flock of them, especially this late in winter. So late in-fact that our first Spring/Summer migrants are arriving on the same day! With Chiffchaff, Wheatear, White Wagtail and Sand Martin being my first spring visitors of the year. Other birds for the day, Reed Bunting, Stonechat, Skylark, Meadow Pipit, Yellowhammer, Greenfinch, Green Woodpecker, Sparrowhawk, Buzzard and many more.
Second evening visit, finally caught up with the Great Grey Shrike, observed for a good hour mimicking the sounds of Siskin and Redpoll, I suspect to lure them in closer for the kill. Pretty incredible birds. My favourite pic was the sun going down, just about lined it up at the top of a beach tree between the mountain in the distance.
SO! It was only six months ago that I shared the great news that I had got a Job working for the Brecon Beacons National Park, a game changer of a Job that I absolutely love! However it is only a Trainee position with no guarantee of a permanent Job at the end, so during this training I've been keeping my eyes open for other Jobs, hoping that something will come up a little closer to home. A couple months ago, Welsh Water starting advertising for Rangers at Llandegfedd Reservoir. As you'll probably know already, I love Llandegfedd! It's always been that special go-to place that fuelled my wildlife passion. So yesterday I had my interview for the Job and today you can imagine how happy I am to hear that I got the Job. If all goes smoothly in the transfer, I'll be starting in April.
A short trip to Llandegfedd after college today and you can see why I love this place so much! There is literally Toad fall-out! and I've tried my best to capture the energy in this annual event. There were about 50 males to 4 females so you can imagine the amount of fighting going on. Sometimes you just have to fight your way to victory.
Between showers we had some beautiful light today. Some would say it was even too bright at times but personally it was nice to see a bit of blue in the sky. Below, the first picture is of 'Wall Screw-moss' which is pretty common and as the name suggests, likes walls. Check your Garden wall and you may have some yourself. I took a picture of them because the morning sun lit them up beautifully and as the sun was so low in the sky, half of the wall was still in shadow, giving the image a two toned vibe. Below that is Goosander, one of two on the South Sebastopol stretch of canal. A notable sized flock of Redpoll was also feeding in the tree tops along the canal and in the wet woodland.
Last week in work my colleagues and I were introduced to a true traditional -'Breconshire style'- way of hedge laying. The location was just above Llangorse Lake on the west bank on a SSSI site. We've done work in this beautiful area before so it was nice to visit again and hear all the birds in the background, including seeing two Great White Egrets that were using the flooded fields catching early spring frogs. Rather than explain everything we did, I thought I'd put a short video together showing various stages of the Hedge. If you're familiar with Hedge Laying but perhaps not with the Breconshire style, I'd highly recommend it, it has such a great finish but is also made strong and most importantly, stock proof.
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