Sunday 17th April 2016

Oxwich Marsh..

This morning I was out with the Gower Ringing group, 5:45am at Oxwich the morning was cool with a hint of frost and about 2/8ths overcast the breeze came and went a bit at first but by 11am was noticeably billowing the nets.

A slow start gave way to a steady couple of rounds with a decent variety of birds including the first Blackcap and Grasshopper Warbler of the season.

As I'm off to Lesbos ringing & birding on Friday I won't be up to too much this week but I've put a few "taster" photo's on todays blog.

Black Stork

Scops Owl

Starred Agama

Serapia spp

Wednesday 13th April 2016

Spring... its arrived.....

Today I was at one of our other nature reserves today, Morfa Berwig, a reclaimed brown field site which itself was once coastal marshland.

Five horses are on site as part of a conservation grazing regime.

Two of the five grazers

With a warm day, we touched 18'c and the wildlife enjoyed it with 35 species of birds recorded as well as Small tortoiseshell, Peacock, Comma, Speckled Wood and Orange Tip butterflies.

The best of the birds included at least 10 Blackcaps, mostly males, Willow Warblers, Chiffchaff, at least five singing Cettis Warbler a few Sedge Warblers and two Reed Warblers. Five Gadwall suggests possible breeding.

Female and Male Gadwall

Flowers are still few and far between, but Primroses put on a show with Barren Strawberry and Coltsfoot, as well as Dandelions but with over 200 micro species I'll just call them Dandelions.

Primrose

Despite Mink track , the Water Voles seem to be quite active, with tracks and feeding signs in a few places.

Tuesday 12th April 2016

Fog..........

Fog is not conducive to good ringing conditions, and this morning the fog proved to be particularly wet!!

Still it was worth the effort of trying the new net set in the reed bed as the only bird caught happened to be a Sedge Warbler, the first of the year and the first of many I hope.

Sedge Warbler

When the sun did break through the morning was warm and some of the dune plants are starting to flower, including this Wild Pansy, Viola ticilor , a stunning little plant the Dune Pansy a sub species of the Wild Pansy also occurs but is yellow in colour.

Wild Pansy

11th April 2016

First blooms.....

After yesterdays wind and gales this morning was much calmer and a tad milder....

I started off by replacing some of the "dogs on leads" signs which have been damaged by the recent bad weather and in the process it became apparent that there had been a bit of a "fall" of Northern Wheatears with two lots of two at either end of the reserve, and reports from local birders of birds to the East and West of the reserve.

Northern Wheatear

Northern Wheatear

Its amazing how coincidently thing happen, I stopped to scan the ground ahead for more Wheatear, and happened to look to my feet and there was my first Green-winged Orchid, Anacamptis moria , the photo is overexposed a little as the colour was a deep purple.

Green-winged Orchid, Anacamptis moria

A small flock of Barn Swallows along the fore dunes is making it feel more like SPRING

Friday 8th April 2016

A bit of Winter and a bit more of Spring.....

A calmer day than of late and the Gower Ringing Group were at Oxwich  NNR.

The morning started off with little cloud cover but soon clouded over and out of any sun it felt cool, in the sun it was lovely.

We had quite a lot of net set, over 500ft, but had little to show for our efforts in terms of quantity but the quality was great.

The fist Willow Warbler of the year caused some raised eyebrows as it was a very grey bird, but with a definite supercilium and its primaries were emarginated to P5, P6 was not emarginated no matter how hard I looked, after processing and releasing the bird we all felt that perhaps we should have taken a few different biometrics, especially when we caught a "classic" spring bird a few net rounds later.

Willow Warbler

This time of year is always great to see the resident birds getting ready for breeding and we processed a female Dunnock carrying eggs. Two Long-tailed Tits (Lotti) were processed, one being new bird,the other had already been ringed if we capture more than one Lotti we always try and release them at the same time as they tend to associate in "family"groups.

Long-tailed Tits

I guess the surprise of the morning came in the form of a female BRAMBLING, a very unexpected bird at this time of year hopefully she will be continuing on her journey north.

Female Brambling

The weather is looking pretty grim for the next few days....

Thursday 7th April 2016

Preparation.....

A blustery cool morning saw me preparing a few ringing rides in the Willow/Reed area of the upper marsh, in preparation for the warbler season.

The Phragmities has not started to grow more than a few centimetres so I will have to clear the rides again as the reed grows, I only need a width of a metre just to set the net and walk along without dragging the net when extracting birds.

When the reeds start to grow it will be easier to clear and be more defined,

there's a Wiltshire "dog-leg" at the front

The flock of Common Shelduck remains at around 22 individuals plus there are at least, what appears to be, three pairs, hopefully they may get their act together and nest?

A bit over exposed! but you get the idea

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.