A Brief Account of A Long Trip to Wales. 29th April 2022

Every year (except recently because of you know what) we make the long journey westwards into deepest Wales to visit a beautiful Oakwood and to see the birds that make it their homes for the summer. The woodlands of the RSPB's reserve of Gwenffrwd-Dinas are special and so are the handful of migratory birds that breed within it. Timing is crucial, go too early in April and some of the birds have yet to arrive, go too late into May and many are already nesting and thus are more difficult to see, although you get the delight of seeing the Bluebell carpet in full bloom. We've found that the last few days of April or the first few of May are best. I've written several blogs about our trips to Gwenffrwd-Dinas before (you can read them here and here) so this one will be brief. Promise.

When you leave the carpark, thankfully almost empty on this fine and sunny Friday morning, you walk onto a boardwalk which leads through a narrow strip of trees. Some of the desired birds, particularly Pied Flycatchers, can be seen in this section of the woodland. Usually we'd expect to see Garden Warblers here but they were missing this time. The first bird we saw, and it was a bit of a surprise too since although we expect to see Common Redstarts in the wood, they are normally seen further along the walk. So to see the incredible male Redstart perched on top of the handrail stopped us dead in our tracks. Common Redstarts are often difficult to approach and usually do not allow for close views but this one was unperturbed by us and carried on singing until it was ready to move on by its own accord. 

Common Redstart (male)

When the Redstart had flown off into the trees we walked on. We met Derek, an old acquaintance from Oxfordshire who now lives in South Wales. He was saying how difficult it was to get a photo of the Pied Flycatchers and how the birds must "hate him" because they wouldn't pose at all. Just fifty metres on we had two male Pied Flycatchers posing on branches so close that they were almost on our arms. I had to back away to be able to take photos with my lens. I turned and looked for Derek so that he could join in the photo opportunity but unfortunately he was nowhere to be seen.

Pied Flycatcher (male)

We couldn't pull ourselves away from the Pied Flycatchers as they took to different perches all around us either using them to launch sorties to snatch prey from the air or as song posts. Pied Flycatchers are rare in Oxfordshire and the closest reliable sites we have are the Forest of Dean and the Wyre Forest. We've found though that views at those places are nowhere near as good as what you get at Gwenffrwd-Dinas so we prefer to take the longer trip to get our Pied Fly fix.

We stayed for quite a while with the Pied Flycatchers, the two males were occupied in vying for the attention of a female which in turn was showing interest in one of the nest boxes. She was much less photogenic, however. 

Pied Flycatcher (female)

There are Sheep in the woods and a cheeky Lamb watched us from behind a tree providing an amusing anecdote to the day. We met Derek again and he retold us his story of bad luck with the Pied Flycatchers, made worse when we told him about the pair of males we'd just seen. We stayed with him for half an hour trying to help him get his photos but despite our confidence the Pied Flycatchers were now nowhere to be seen. We wanted to press on so wished him luck and walked further into the wood once again.

We found a female Common Redstart, drab in comparison to the male of earlier, but still sporting the bright red tail. She was lining a nest in a hole on the side of a dead tree. The material being used for the nest was leaves and grass collected from the paths and we watched her ferry beak fulls into the tree. On one flight to the tree hole I caught her as she fluttered for position and captured a rather angelic pose.

Common Redstart (female)

A little further on we found a female Pied Flycatcher also involved in building a nest of her own which was again sited in a hole in the side of a tree. Despite the provision of hundreds of nest boxes for the birds, a lot of Pied Flycatchers still prefer to use natural holes in trees. Apparently Common Redstarts do not take to nest boxes at all and most often nest in natural cavities.

Flycatchers and Redstarts are lovely birds but the bird that I most look forward to seeing when in a Welsh woodland is the Wood Warbler. I have a soft spot for Warblers and one of the best of them is the little tree loving yellow-tinted Wood Warbler and listening to its trilling song is one of the highlights of spring. It was the call though, a drawn out whistle that alerted me to our first Wood Warbler, and the 200th bird, of the year, incidentally the quickest we've ever reached that number.

Wood Warbler

Wood Warblers at Gwenffrwd-Dinas prefer the steeply wooded flanks of the river that loops around the reserve. The trees are Silver Birch which is always a preferred habitat for them. The advantage here is that the trees that the Wood Warblers favour are mainly beneath the path level with only the very tops of the closest trees reaching up above the observer. Thus eye level views of the birds can be achieved. The birds we saw on this visit were unusually elusive though and largely the birds were only calling and not singing. I guess we visited just a few days early which combined with the late return of migrant birds this year meant that we were seeing just the vanguard and the newly arrived birds were still settling in.

So for the most part, the great effort that a Wood Warbler puts into singing when its whole body trembles as it pours forth the delightful trill of cascading notes (likened to the sound of a spinning coin that comes to rest on a table) wasn't witnessed this time. On the few occasions that we heard the song, it was only a half-hearted effort. Still lovely to hear though.

I was more than happy to take photos of the birds feeding, there isn't much to beat views of the yellow and green Wood Warbler set amongst the similarly coloured leaves of the Silver Birches. Sitting on a bench watching Wood Warblers while we ate our picnic was an absolute joy!

It was now, at two in the afternoon, a warm day but thankfully the trees shaded us as we walked back to the car. The Pied Flycatchers and Redstarts were still busily building nests and we had a quick view of a Tree Pipit high up in the canopy as it launched into its parachuting song flight. No photos but we'd be sure to see more Tripits later in the spring on our travels.

Back at the carpark, a small squadron of beautiful male Siskins were taking advantage of the free food handout offered by other visitors. A Nuthatch joined in too. Derek was also there and he showed us that he'd finally got his Pied Flycatcher shots that he so desired. A good day all round!

Nuthatch

Siskin (male)

Year List additions;

198) Common Redstart, 199) Pied Flycatcher, 200) Wood Warbler, 201) Tree Pipit