Very Late

Martin Bevan's Cuba 2017 trip report is now in the link section.

a bit late...

but my trip report from Kruger is now live - see link to the right

They are back.

 

Crickhowell today.

Greetings from Parc Taf Bargoed

Happy New Year everyone (Well, it's my first post of the year!).

I've mainly been pottering around quite locally, but have managed to be my year list up to 109 and I haven't left Glamorgan yet. On the PSL front, over 20 lifers so far this year, mainly fungi and lichens.

The BTO Tawny Owl survey has frustrated the hell out of me. Over the late summer I was hearing the local birds most evenings/early mornings. They performed nicely for the first few of the weekly visits, but since November, the visits have been dead, nothing, not a single hoot.

This morning I did the first of this years WeBS counts. As I didn't have a great deal of time before heading off to coach, I walked up to the climbing centre in the dark, with the intention of doing the count in a single pass of the lakes at Taf Bargoed. The bonus of going up to the top end in the dark was the chance to pick up Tawny Owl for the year and see if any Woodcock were around. In the cold, and wet, dark of the morning, it looked like the Tawny's would be a blank but Woodcock could be o the cards.

Reaching the bottem end of the lakes, 3 large white shapes drifted into view - three Mute Swans. Whoa! they were all immature birds, so it looks like a record count for the species was on the cards - provided, of course, the resident adult bird was still around. Further up i through the rain, two more large white shapes could be vaguely made out - 2 more Swans? Bring on the light.

Walking on further, I passed the first of the morning bird scarers out with their owner for an early morning walkies. Talking to the owner, they had been up round the settling beds. So little chance now of any Woodcock!

Passing the settling beds i heard the briefest hoot. Was it a Tawny, or was it just my imagination - desperation setting in!. I waited but heard nothing further. So I decided on trying a little bit of play back. Within 30 secs a distant male hooted in response. Nice, they are still around. Just as I was wondering if the bird would come closer to investigate the potential intruder, a hoot sounded quite close. Ah, it had come closer. It hooted again, prob no more than some 50 meters away and was almost instantly answered by a distant hoot, the first responding male - so 2 males, even nicer.

As the light gradually improved, onto the count, and indeed there were 5 Mute Swans - the resident adult and 4 immature birds. The regularly wintering Teal was still present and Coot numbers had risen to 2. Mallards don't seem to be going down in number with 122 (including the 4 Gemima's).  

Ringing News

I have finally got the news back on the Abercwmboi Lake Mute Swan, it was rung has an adult on July 7 2017 in Dorset at Abbotsbury Swannery. This bird was still in the area over Christmas when it was in Dare Valley Country Park.

Isle of Skye

A last minute decision saw us heading north for a week to the Isle of Skye. Not primarily a birding trip but I was hoping for some of the birds not seen in South Wales very often.

On arriving at our cottage on Saturday afternoon I was pleased to note that we had a patio overlooking a sea loch. I set the scope up and the first bird I saw was a Black Throated Diver, followed by a couple of Great Northern Divers, Black Guillemots and Red Breasted Mergansers. Hooded Crows as expected were everywhere.

On the Monday we went to the Fairy Pools near Carboost, fabulous scenery here made better by two White Tailed Eagles flying over, certainly the bird of the trip.

Weirdest bird of the trip however was when I had to stop the car at 2.30 in the afternoon in bright sunshine for a Woodcock to walk nonchalantly across the road.

12 Whooper Swans were found just off the island on a small pool on the road south.

Nothing really unusual for the rest of the stay with all the usual waders you would expect Dunlin, Curlew, Ringed Plover, Oystercatchers, Redshank, Lapwing being observed. More Black Throated and Great Northern Divers were seen but surprisingly no Red Throated Divers. The only other raptors seen were Buzzard and Kestrel.

Another last minute decision saw us book in a B & B in Dumfries on the way home to split the journey home up. So on the Sunday we called into Caerlaverock as we were staying very close to the reserve. We had never visited this WWT reserve before and although we didn't have a lot of time really enjoyed our quick walk around. It was nice to get thousands of tickable Barnacle Geese, Tree Sparrow, lots of Whooper Swan, a very large flock of Golden Plover, Curlews, Black Tailed Godwits along with lots of wildfowl.

Better late than never.

Cwm Cadlan - Great grey Shrike showing well also Raven,Kestrel and approx 25 Crossbill. Llwyn Onn - Water Pipit on slipway with Pied and Grey Wagtails.

First Trip to the Coast in 2019

Sunday morning me and my daughter, Kathryn, headed back to Porthcawl and we left the sociable  time of 7:30 am and we got to Salt Lake car park at about 8:20 am and due to low cloud it was still dark and there were no gulls in the car park. We had to kill time so we took had a quick walk to the fair and back and has we walked back the gulls started to arrive and I said to my daughter you've got lots of bread today, having fetched two large loafs. She started throwing the bread and gulls were there real quick and there was about 150 Black Headed Gulls and only about a dozen Herring Gull but there was no rings on any of the gulls. She went though a loaf very quick and I said keep the other loaf for the next stop just in time, I think . Well, next stop was Victoria Avenue and I found the Med Gulls real quick and it's always nice to get one for the New Year. There were seven in total but there were no rung bird present today. Kathryn started throwing the bread on the grass in front of us and the gulls came real close and I started taking photos but the photos were real bad as the light was real  bad and there seemed to be something wrong with the camera and I checked the setting and they were off  so I switched  it back and things were looking good. Only problem was Kathryn only had a hand full of bread left and the cheeky sod said you better bring four loafs next time. Also of note there were no Purple Sandpipers present and only a single Turnstone. Our next stop was  Kenfig Pool where we walked down to the pool and I started my first search for the Slavonian Grebe and after finding it twice just before Christmas very quick and I could not find it anywhere .There was good numbers of duck on the pond with almost all being year ticks. There good numbers of Pochard and Tufted Ducks and smaller numbers of other ducks like  Goldeneye, Wigeon, Gadwall, Shoveler,Teal, Mallard and a couple of Great Crested Grebe and sadly not the Grebe I was looking for. I did get my second Great White Egret for the year. As we walked down through the dunes toward the coast road it got wetter and wetter and we both ended up with wet feet and where were my wellies? In the house! Once we got to the beach, the tide was going out pretty fast and we walked down to the water edge and I found four Sanderling feeding on the beach and has we headed towards Sker Point I was scanning the sea and I picked up a Great Crested Grebe flying up channel and it landed on the sea and I quickly set the scope up to have a look at it and as I was looking for it a diver flew passed headed up channel. As I watched it I thought that not a Red-throated Diver as it lacked the up turned bill and the black on the head was clearly below the eye and it was medium size diver and I could not see any marbling on the back or any noticeable bumps on the head and the more I watched it I was more happy on it being  Black-throated Diver and I followed it for some distant but it kepted going up channel and out towards Somerset .

We sat on the rocks at Sker and had a coffee. It was great to see the rocks covered in the casings of Honeycomb worms and it was a first for my daughter and a couple years since I looked at them last. As we sat there I could see the Mussel beds starting to show and flocks of Oystercatchers and Turnstones flew passed us towards the beds. I also had two Purple Sandpiper going passed but on the  point there was loads of anglers and I think the birds could not feed much and were waiting for the Mussels bed to be uncovered.

When we started to walk along the rocks we met Mike Power and he told us that he saw the Slavonian Grebe and that the Cattle Egrets were back in Porthcawl. Just as we started our 5 minute beach clean, I spotted a Brent Goose feeding by a rock pool and it had was rung - an easy one to read  DD and green and I have put  the details in and I am waiting for the news. Going back to the beach clean, we think there must have been a beach clean in the last couple of days and it took us half hour to fill half sack and it's brilliant to see a clean beach for five minutes. After that we went back to the pool but still no sign of that dam grebe, arrrr! and there was some guy throwing a ball has far as he could out in the pool for his dog to fetch. It makes you think how the hell is this a nature reserve. We went back to the car and a quick stop on the way home for the Cattle Egrets and you can see why it's called Zig Zag lane and I was praying a car did not come the other way and half way along we were stuck behind two horses. As we got to White Wheat Caravan Park I could see the egrets in the field to the left and we had cracking views of all four - a Glamorgan tick for me and a great way to end the day with Great White Egret and Cattle Egret in the bag and I still have not seen a Little Egret yet this year.

Bryn Du over the Christmas Holidays

 I had a nice walk through the forest on Monday and I found a big flock of Lesser Redpoll and there was about 50 in total and  the most I have seen in a long time and I also .notice someone had left a mountain bike in the forest and it was leaning against a tree and if I did not have the dog with me I would have took it for a spin and than put it back  .I also found a woodcock along the side of the road and they still make me jump a mile and when I was walking down one of the rides I meet a bloke with two terriers and he said it,s the first time I have seen someone down here and he told me last week he had seen a female Hen Harrier and he was a tidy bloke . I also notice the Match stick Lichen is looking real good at the moment.
                                                                                   

Going Underground.

It was great to spend the day with Mike Hogan counting hibernating moths and butterflies in the Morlais cave and tunnel.

We met at nine and went up to the cave first. Walking through the quarries, we were puzzled by patches of a crusty white substance that was distributed randomly over various parts of the quarry.

We wondered what this was, but came to no firm conclusion until we came to the cave; parts of the entrance to which was plastered in it. Here it was more recognisable as paper pulp. Paper pulp is a waste product of paper production, involving recycled paper and paper manufacturers offer it to farmers for free or even pay farmers to allow it to be sprayed over their land, to be ploughed in. It is terrible stuff and because of the chemicals it contains, it takes years of weathering before bacteria and fungi can survive in it and start breaking it down. Normally it is pale blue in colour, but this was white.
Later, while driving home, it dawned on me why it was white and so randomly and patchily distributed. It was artificial snow. A TV production company must have filmed a winter scene up there in the quarries.

In the cave, we had the best haul of moths and butterflies it has ever produced, with 6 Herald Moths, 8 Twenty Plumed Moths, 1 Peacock and 14 Small Tortiseshell.

The tunnel took a couple of hours to do, as usual, but there the count was 57 Herald Moths. At the Pant end of the tunnel, we had the slightly bizarre experience of standing inside the tunnel, watching a Dipper and a Grey Wagtail, while Mike was talking to Phil on the mobile.

Just after we left the tunnel, to walk back to the cars, I spotted a willow branch on the ground, which had a mass of Hair Ice festooning the underside of it.

Back at the cars, I was showing Mike Hazel Woodwart (Hypoxylon fusca) when I noticed a small patch of Cobalt Crust (Terana caerulea) on a dead Hazel stem and was wondering how I was going to get close enough for a photo, when I noticed another small patch on the broken end of a stem right alongside us.

A good day had and in good company. Thanks Mike.

Starting the New Year in the valleys

After a last minute change to birding  New Years day I decided to stuck local and see how many species I could get in the Cynon Valley and a little bit of the Merthyr Valley . I opened my front door at 7.00am and the clock started and my first bird of the New year was Jackdaw and you could hear them calling from Aberdare Park near by and straight after they were followed by Robin and Song Thrush and three birds before I had got to the car. My first port of call was Peace Park or Pwll Waun Cynon and I got there about 7.20 am and you could see the Moon and two planets showing in the dawn sky and I think one got to be Venus and it was real bright  . As walked across in the dark and made my way to the Local Nature Reserve and I made myself comfortable by seating on the stile by the river and I was waited for  it to get light and it was great to hear the wildfowl calling from the Pond and this is my list from this site and in order has I saw them.

 

 4 Moorhen.

5 Mallard.

6 Teal I had 7 in total.

7 Tawny Owl . Was Heard only and two called for fair period off time and one was in Duffryn woods and the other one was towards Cwmbach.

8 Coot  . There was only single bird present .

9 Canada Geese . There was a flock of  20 birds  present and they took off first and I could see the splash when they came back down.

10 Blackbird.

11 Carrion Crow .

12 Woodcock . I had two birds flying over just has it was getting light and they were both together.

13 Dunnock.

14 Kingfisher.

15 Wren.

16 Great Tit.

17 Raven .

18 Blue Tit.

19 Tree Creeper.

20 Dipper .

21 Nuthatch.

22 Coal Tit.

23 Cormorant .

24 Grey Heron.

25 Goshawk I picked up a big bird in the Distant and has it got closer I was Quietly surprised as most of the forestry has been cut down and this pretty big Female flew right over me and soon disappeared again.

26  Water Rail .

27 Magpie.

28 Goosander . I had four flying over and I found the same bird  later at Abercwmboi Lake.

29 Jay .

30 Collard Dove . Were at the bottom of Fernhill Estate.

31 Herring Gull . Was the only Gull seen all day.

32 House Sparrow.

33 Starling .

Next stop was Abercwmboi Lake and has I got there I could here the Swans taking off and when I got to the water edge , I was surprised to see there was only 5 birds present and I had two bags of seed and two loafs of bread for them.

34 Mute Swan.

35 Grey Wagtail was heard only .

36 Greylag Goose .

37 Little Grebe.

38 Jackdaw .

39 Goldcrest.

40 Great White Egret . After searching for ten minutes I found it at the top of the lake in  the reed bed and I was just starting to think it had gone before the New Year.

The Next  site was Tir Founder Fields.

41 Goldfinch  and only a single seen all day.

42 Reed Bunting.

43 Common Snipe .After seeing loads of signs at Peace Park it was a relief to find a single bird and it was the only one seen all day.

44 Jack Snipe. After flushing the common Snipe I found  small tracks and I thought they got to be jack and I looked a bit hard and I found a single bird.

45 Lesser Redpoll.

46 Bullfinch.

47 Siskin.

48 Mistle Thrush.

49 Green Finch.

50 Long Tailed Tit.

Next site was Cwm Cadlan and has I was passing Aberdare  town centre ,I had one more bird.

51 Feral Pigeon.

52 Red Kite.

54 Great Grey Shrike.

55 Common Crossbill  and I had two flocks and twenty in total.

56 Common Buzzard .

Next stop was Llwyn on Reservoir and it was dead and I only  had one new bird.

57 Pied Wagtail. It was on the spillway and no sign of the Grey Wagtail or Water Pipit.

Next stop was Garwnant

58 Fieldfare . After failing to find Martin or Mike  flock of winter thrush at Cwm Cadlan and when I found this small flock it was a bonus and one I thought I had lost my chance of for the day.

59 Great Spotted Woodpecker.

60 Kestrel  .

61 Chaffinch was the last bird of the day.

I Put food on the feeding tables at Garwnant and I had load of chaffinches and Nuthatch and three species of Tit and sadly no Willow Tit showed up.The car park was  pretty full and there was loads of people and I think it was just to busy for them. I did have a brief view of a Tit on the road coming down and it looked right but it never called and I could not find it again and also I had a Brief snatch of song which sound like Green woodpecker and it never called again. I also checked Cantref Reservoir and there was only four Mallard on there and Becons Reservoir was dead and no birds . The last place I stopped  was the 4059 road over to Hirwaun and the chance  of any Owls or Harriers being out were slim and it was windy and drizzling and not the best condition. I also had a nice surprise in the Mammal department and my first Mammal for 2019 was a Female Otter and Second was a Mink and I did not see one last year at all and I think this will be my new  goal for the New Year day of the Future .

 I  also found three Muscovy ducks on the canal and the third one was jumping the fence when I was there and maybe new bird for the Valleys one day.

Happy New Year

Here's wishing you all a fruitful birding year in 2019!