Monday 4th -Wednesday 6th April 2016

440 miles around mid Wales

A last minute idea to have a few days away saw the two of us heading West towards Cardigan in Ceredigeon, passing the famous Cenarth Falls on the river Teifi, which were running nicely after the recent spell of rain.

Cenarth Falls

We were told that a 10lb Sewin (Sea Trout) had been caught from below the falls that morning.

We moved on towards cardigan and the South and West Wales Wildlife trust centre t the Teifi Marshes, it is fair to say we were not particularly impressed with the visitor centre or the lack of greeting from the person on the desk.

Leaving here we headed for Aberystwyth and spent the night at the Belle Vue Royal Hotel on the sea front, all I can say is if we had the large breakfast I would hate to see the small version....

We headed towards Machynlleth stopping at Ynyslas NNR part of the larger Dyfi NNR, the Natural Resources Wales staff were very friendly and I met "Ali" one of the staff that I share "tweets" with.

Common Lizard

From there we headed on and arrived at the Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust Dyfi Osprey centre, The Ospreys have just arrived back and I was hoping for some views, I was not disappointed the Trust have  had funding to build an "observatory" WOW!! what a building using recycled products, a superb facility and superb views of the Ospreys (3). The volunteers and staff were great. On the feeders near the car park were Lesser Redpoll and Siskin

Lesser Redpoll and Siskin

the Observatory at the Dyfi Osprey centre

From here we headed North to Betws y Coed and stayed at the Swallow Falls Hotel, in the past we've always driven on thinking the hotel would be too expensive but at £60 B&B it was a great stop over.

Swallow Falls

Leaving Betws y Coed this morning we headed to wards Bala, and then into the heart of MidWales heading toward Rhayader and the 70 Sq mile Dwr Cymru/Welsh Water Elan Valley Estate visitor centre and the reservoirs.

Due to the high winds the reservoir, Caban Coch was flowing OVER the dam.

impressive

The visitor centre here is great and the rangers were very friendly.

Having visited four very different visitor centres I thought I would share my views on the merits of each and rate them out of 5 with 1 being adequate and 5 offering a great experience.

Cardigan Wildlife centre SWWWT, a modern commercial facility, lots of families on site, information /shop not the best and staff member did not acknowledge us. score 2

Ynyslas visitor centre NRW, a basic centre in the dunes, lots of maps and narratives plus lots of signage around the site, staff very friendly. score 3

Dyfi Osprey centre, the car park in undergoing an extension and the entrance centre with live webcam feed of a very high quality and a small shop before accessing via a boardwalk the new observatory, all of the volunteers were friendly, well informed and passionate about the Ospreys and the site, the paid staff seemed a little reserved. score 5 !!!!

Elan Valley visitor centre, a good centre in an outstanding location managed by the "not for profit", Welsh Water, staff and ranger welcoming, restaurant was rammed !, displays about the reservoirs, their history and the 70 Sq mile estate was informative.  score 4

Wales has so much to offer.....

Oops and as for wildlife, Red Kites (far too many to be ecologically sound?) Osprey (3), Common Shelduck, Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Lesser redpoll, Siskin, Pied Wagtail, Raven, plus Common Lizard, Bluebells, Dogs Mercury, Dog Violet and lots of Celandines.

Thursday 31st March 2016

Frost and ice, then glorious sunshine...

This morning must have been the frostiest that I have been out in for a very considerable time, probably over 12months; we were at Oxwich NNR for a few hours.

The morning developed slowly into glorious sunshine and a gentle breeze, the sun on the nets was not helpful but the net in the shelter of some scrub played its part with a slow trickle of birds, mostly retraps but later in the morning a few new (unringed) birds.

The surprise of the morning was a male Sparrowhawk caught whilst probably investigating the male Great Spotted Woodpecker that was already in the net, and judging by the mess that it made of the net it was not happy having the Sparrowhawk for company.

Male Eurasian Sparrowhawk

Wednesday 30th March 2016

Great day to be alive....

The weather this morning was cool and blustery and after a heavy shower at 8am the rest of the day turned out to be one of the best so far.

I checked the camera trap in the reed bed, and although no Otters were on film there was a rear view of a Badger, a Meadow Pipit and a full on male Pheasant ( there are three Pheasants living in the marsh which is of courser the natural home to these birds). I can't get the video to upload and play in the blog but I will keep trying.

I then updated the information in the shelter and had a Barn Swallow cross my path. Whilst talking with a visitor a redshank flew in from the beach and started to display flight over one of the grazing fields!! magic.

As if that wasn't enough whilst talking to Adam Dare, one of the local birders, and his wife a flock of c175 Golden Plover flew across the reserve quite low, the reason was soon revealed to be the Peregrine which was in hot pursuit and looked like it had made a kill of one of the birds so c174 now!

With a small passage of Barn Swallows and a Northern Wheatear on the dunes it was a really great morning and all before 10am.

The rest of the day was spent on tasks including fixing another potential breach in the cattle fence...

...shall we drive over to get the fence post?, its too boggy says Veronica so we walk over

solid ground for 1/4 of a mile pick up the fence posts and walk back 1/4 mile...!

That should hold them...

Work on the stile into our "control of dogs" field will have to wait (wrong saw), then we went off to look at the lakes in the Millennium Coastal Park to check on the litter situation and any fishing activity.

At just one lake we picked three bags of plastic between us a swell as a full bag of landfill waste, why would anglers want to sit in trash?

There was no fishing activity on any of the four lakes  but we did find a dead fish looking suspiciously like the invasive non-native Top-mouth Gudgeon, we know this is in one of the lakes but thought the others were clear....

possibly a Top-mouth Gudgeon

Monday 28th March 2016

Storm Katie blows through.....

Storm Katie didn't affect this part of the world too much, although it did rain a lot last night.

This morning consisted of an early call at WWT with the CES team of Gower Ringing Group to set up for the new CES season as we have had four new nets given to the group.

With that task sorted in double quick time I set off to meet Veronica, who donated the camera trap last week, to set the camera in the reed beds at the reserve. With that task done and dusted we had a walk along the beach and over the dunes, spending time searching for our special beetle the "Strandline Beetle", alas we didn't find any but did come across another "black" beetle, the Strand-line beetle, and what we think is its larval form.

Strand-line beetle and larva

Last year, Common Ringed Plover nested on the upper beach so it was great to see one bird stubbornly refusing to move until we got a bit too close, fingers crossed lets see what this year brings.

Common Ringed Plover with obligatory ocean debris

A late evening walk around Sandy Water Park was accompanied by this male Blackbird with the softest of song......

champion songster

Saturday 26th March 2016

The first migrants ahead of storm "Kate".......

Yesterday (Friday 25th) I had my first sighting of Northern Wheatear on the reserve at Pembrey, the were a bit too active to get a photo, there will be opportunity later in the spring I hope.

A stroll around my local "patch" at Sandy Water Park in the evening found the male Goldeneye still on the lake, plus the first Sand Martins (10) that I have seen this spring

 distant male Goldeneye

A mix of winter and summer, as the day had been perfect clear blue skies and warm sunshine, not so good for migrant watching but a lovely day to enjoy the area.

Great Crested Grebe

I don't often spend any time taking photos of the local wildfowl but the light was so interesting yesterday evening it was hard to walk on by.

male Mallard

female (L) & male (R) Gadwall

female Tufted Duck, looks like its swimming in molten metal

this should be an easy "mystery bird"

On Thursday I carried out a water quality test on the lake, as part of a project being run by the Freshwater Habitats Trust, I'm pleased to say that based on the results on Thursday the water in the lake is very low in nutrients !!

First Barn Swallows of the season at Sandy Water Park this morning (2) !!!!! here comes summer, opps storm Kate first.

Wednesday 23rd March 2016

New reserve.....

A new local nature reserve (LNR) has been designated in the Llanelli area called Morfa Berwig, this is an area of reclaimed industrial land on what was a marsh/beach hence the Welsh term Morfa meaning beach.

A great deal of work has been undertaken including the creation of ponds and pools as well as scrub clearance, inconjuntion with ARC trust, (Amphibian and Reptile Conservation) , Keep Wales Tidy and the county council.

We met there today to open up a public footpath and clear moss from the footbridges.

Lunchtime

Whilst we were there I carried out a basic water quality test as part of a project with the Freshwater Habitats Trust, the test is for Phosphate and Nitrate levels, it was pleasing to see that the ditch running through the reserve had almost negligible levels of either.

a simple sample test  before recording the answers

(the phone is to count down the three or five minutes)

I sent Veronica in to get the water sample!!

Just before the water test I saw two Water Voles on the far side of the ditch, the Water Voles at this site have the distinction of being slightly larger than their relatives on other sites nearby.

Flowers are starting to show with Coltsfoot, and Primroses evident.

Coltsfoot

Primrose

Sunday 20th March 2016

First day of spring... properly....

Today marks the Spring Equinox, the days will really start to get longer than the nights  now.

 third hand report of an Otter nr the reserve car park had me out and about early this morning, in the hope of a glimpse of this elusive creature that I have tracked around the reserve for the past 5 months... NO I didn't see the animal but if anyone wants to lend/donate a camera trap then I've got the perfect place for one to be put.

I fared better on the bird front with the still lingering female Merlin, I managed to creep up on the bird to within 50m, after she had failed to catch a meadow Pipit.

Merlin

Merlin

A couple of shots one has been slightly cropped, I am quite pleased with the result given I only use a "bridge" camera.

The bird list for 2016 has now reached 81 species recorded which I am pretty pleased with there are lots more species to be added during the coming months and I reckon the list by December 31st could hit 110.

The 81st species was GOSHAWK a male (on size) was being harried by gulls but paid not attention and made its way across the reserve.

Bring on the butterflies, dragonflies and the orchids....