Birds the colour of rainbows and some black & white too! Wales 5th May

Every year Mrs Caley and I take the long journey west into deepest Wales to visit the sessile oak woodlands and to see the special birds that make them their summer homes. Although we have some nice woodland in Oxfordshire which do have some smart birds of their own, there is nothing quite like the Welsh wooded hillsides. The RSPB reserve at Gwenffrwd-Dinas near Llandovery is a fine example of such woodland and echoes in spring to the sound of recently arrived migrant birds and provides good nesting habitat for them too.

There was added attraction to this visit as well with the opportunity to "twitch" a vagrant Green Heron which had been found in a rural garden in Pembrokeshire by the property's owner. He had very thoughtfully provided access to birders allowing them to view the bird which was frequenting and staying very loyal to a small pond in the garden. We had seen a Green Heron before having been lucky enough to be in Cornwall on holiday back in October 2010 when a juvenile bird had turned up in similar habitat at the Lost Gardens of Heligan. Back in those days I only had an old camera and short lens so wasn't able to get any photos of great quality then so it seemed prudent to go and have a look at the latest one which incidentally is only the 8th recorded in the UK.

Green Heron, Heligan, October 2010

We left home at 04:00 and hit the roads westwards which were largely deserted at the early hour. After paying the "get into Wales" fee it was getting light and the clear sky promised a beautiful day ahead. Trundling on the motorway past the major towns the sun rose behind us and it was indeed a glorious day. Sunshine makes birding so much easier and photography is a cinch even for me in brightly lit conditions. Then about 15 miles away from our destination just near to Carmarthen we hit a bank of fog. Thick fog at that! Unbelievable. The fog remained with us all the way to the designated parking area. The house and garden in question is in a fabulous rural setting and access to it was via a stroll through a lovely wooded valley which followed a gurgling stream. This stream fed several small reed edged ponds and it was the smallest of these right bang in the middle of the garden that the heron had chosen. We stood alongside just a handful of other birders in the murky and damp conditions, which at least had improved to just misty now. The heron was spotted immediately partially concealed in some reeds at the base of a small tree no more than 10 yards away. I love 10 second twitches! Takes all of the stress out of it. Within a minute the small heron flew a short way across the pond and landed on a partly submerged log but still within 20 yards of us. I wasn't ready to capture the flight though! Luckily my mate Del Latham did later on that day and allowed me to use one his fabulous images (see more at Del's Birds).

Courtesy of Derek Latham

 After a short appraisal of the bird in order to appreciate its beauty I set about trying to take some worthy images in the difficult light. I could only really get a shutter speed of 1/250-500th of a second with a low enough ISO so it was necessary to keep the camera really steady but we had the scope that served as a useful tripod. I also added the 1.4 extender to the mix which isn't normally a good idea on my part but the results seemed to come out okay in the end. Green herons are more than just green though. The breast and face are a deep russet red with a striped throat. The back and crown gleam to a bottle green colour which bend into iridescent purples if the bird catches the sunlight (which of course it couldn't for us since it was misty). The wing feathers are tipped with white and it has big yellow legs and feet. Hence my paraphrasing of a Half Man Half Biscuit lyric "a rainbow appeared, in black & white" from "National Shite Day" which also features a dead sandpiper but that's another story. More on the black & white bit later in the garble). Get it? No? Well it is rather tenuous to say the least!

After half an hour of standing rather motionless on the same piece of water furniture the heron flew to the farthest point of the pond (I missed the flight again) and commenced hunting. We did see it catch and devour a newt but it was mostly concealed by vegetation and too far away for any reasonable photos. It then stalked away into deep cover and was lost to view.

The leaden sky reminded us that the forecast sunny day was still a way off so after just an hour on site we made the decision to leave the heron, and its increasing crowd of admirers, to it and headed back to the car so that we'd have plenty of time to take in the oak woods. The farm yard that was serving as the car park housed several resplendent Peacocks (or male Peafowl for the pedantic). Stunning but noisy birds and worthy of inclusion here if only as a true rainbow bird.

Just a few miles up the road and by sod's law the sun burst through! At least we'd have good light for the rest of the day. We enjoyed a nice coffee and some Welsh Cakes (well you just have to) at a quaint little cafe near Llandovery and then took the narrow twisting road up to the RSPB reserve. Pleasantly surprised to find just a few cars already parked, by 11:00 we were walking along the newly renovated boardwalk and into a crescendo of bird song. How I'd love to be here at dawn when the sound must be truly exhilarating, maybe cause to consider a weekend break next year? In the first few yards we had clocked the songs of several different warblers as well as the more common species. 

male Blackcap

Then I heard a garden warbler gargling away from a nearby bush. Certainly not "rainbow" birds by any stretch of the imagination cloaked as they are in their nondescript plumage but they are still subtly beautiful and are pretty damn good singers too!

Garden warbler

The next bird we encountered definitely did fit in with the title of this piece when a fine male common redstart watched us from a fallen tree. Red isn't my favourite colour (blue boy that I am) but when it's sported by these little chaps then I can easily make allowances. Rainbow bird for sure! The male common redstart is a bird that I've never got a decent close image of and one which I'd be looking for  on this visit. For now I just admired that blend of red, grey and jet black plumage from afar.

my "usual standard" redstart photo

Next up was a fabulous male pied flycatcher and the black & white bird of the tale. Pied flycatchers are very accessible here and often afford very close views. This male was totally focussed on the female though and we got to witness a bit of flycatcher "porn" when he finally pinned (quite literally) her down. Unfortunately in the dark woodland I hadn't readjusted the camera settings (again) and the photos aren't great.

Flycatchers, oooerrr!

The male pied fly didn't let me down though and when it landed and sang (no doubt feeling pretty pleased with himself after his performance) on a branch just above where we stood, I was able to fire off some of my best shots ever! If I say so myself.

Over 200 pairs of pied flycatchers breed on the reserve mainly using nest boxes provided by their landlords and we managed to see a good 10% of them during our walk. The birds themselves were definitely still in courting mode as we'd seen but some were investigating their potential breeding suites.

Female pied flycatcher checking out a nest box

The flycatchers tended to keep fairly low in the trees so were reasonably easy to locate unlike the male redstarts which sing and cavort about in the canopy. None of the redstarts seemed to want to fulfil my wish of getting a nice image of one so I moved my concentration on to the other speciality of these oak woods and the yellow and green part of the rainbow, the wood warbler. I love wood warblers, the males put so much effort into their trilling song that they just shiver with the delight of it. We could hear many singing away in the trees but as regular visitors we knew where to go for a really good view. There is a section of the path that follows the river and which is set high above it on a slope. Here you can look into the canopy at eye level and see wood warblers without straining your neck. Last year we had very close views of  a male and although this year the bird we chose to study wasn't quite as confiding, he still put on a brilliant show for us. We also saw another bird close by that wasn't interested in showing off so presumably was a female bird. I could watch wood warblers for hours and indeed would have if time wasn't pressing and I wanted to get that redstart.

Many other species of birds breed in these woods and we watched a female nuthatch for a while bring in leaves in which to line it's nest. I only heard a single tree pipit (last year at the same time there were many more) and there were no spotted flycatchers seen all day which is a little concerning but maybe they're all just a bit late in returning still. We watched a female great spotted woodpecker drumming on a hollow branch. Up until then I had thought that it was only males that drummed. See, still learning! Cuckoos could be heard calling from high up the opposite hillside but weren't present in the wood themselves (mainly hole nesters here, so no good for cuckoos) and mistle thrushes rattled around too.

Then as we struck off back to the car I heard a male redstart in full song just ahead. Mrs Caley spotted it stood on a thick mossy covered branch about 30 yards away. This was my chance, my moment. Using adjacent trees as cover I edged closer expecting the songster to disappear at any moment but to my good fortune it stayed put on the oak limb. I made it to about half the distance, sat down and got some images better than any I've ever taken before of these nervy birds (so unlike their cousins, the black redstarts). 

At one point the redstart flew up and I though that was that but in fact it had captured a spider which it manoeuvred into position and ate! I was blessed, unlike the spider!

I took some more shots as the male bird continued singing before he flew off in pursuit of a rival bird and was gone. These proved to the better of my efforts and although not top notch, easily the best I've taken of a difficult subject. Next mission will be to bury the cuckoo hoodoo!

The walk back to the car was fairly uneventful with most birds having become far less active in the warm afternoon. But we were both very happy with the day which had been packed with really good birds (both rainbow coloured and black & white) and I had hours of pleasure ahead of me looking through the 500 odd photos that I'd taken. Definitely not a "shite day"!

                                             

Birding can be FARMOOR fun in the rain! 28-29th April 2018

See what I did there?!

Weekends these days always seem to be accompanied by inclement weather! But at least its only us that get irritated by it. The birds just carry on with their lives and do what birds must do. It's not  pleasant birding in wind and rain and the photography is more difficult but quite often surprises occur when the elements are at their worst. Saturday morning was frankly, quite horrible with persistent light rain and drizzle and with a very cold wind blowing. So the only place to be then was that most windswept, bleak and unforgiving place, Farmoor reservoir!

Having parked up and (not) enjoyed watching the dreich (love that Scottish word) waft over the windscreen, we togged up and made our way up to the reservoir. The sight that greeted us was astounding. There were literally thousands upon thousands of swifts, swallows, house and sand martins all feeding low over the water. They carpeted both basins and resembled the swarm of flies that so annoyed us a few weeks back. The mass of birds were obviously newly arrived and answered the question as to where all the swallows and swifts were this year since most of them were here! Or so it seemed. My best estimate would be over 3000 swallows, 2500 house martins and 2500 sand martins with maybe as many as a 1000 swifts. But to be honest it was impossible to count them and that may be a crazy overestimation! The birds were literally everywhere you looked. I have never seen so many in one place! I just wish I could have got a wide angle photo to document the scene but the 400mm prime just doesn't do it justice.

As we walked along the causeway many birds and particularly the swifts were tearing up and down in pursuit of nourishment. I've no idea what they were catching in such cold conditions since I couldn't see any flies of any description. Often there would be a whoosh of air as a swift passed just inches away from your head! One swift managed to navigate right between myself and Mrs Caley and we were only a couple of feet apart! In teenager speak; it was a totally awesome experience. I set about trying to capture some of the swifts but it was very tricky to say the least not being helped by the rain and poor light.

swifts (by name and by nature!)

Swallows and martins were somewhat easier to track and observe since they fly much more slowly compared to the swifts but despite much searching I couldn't find any of the much coveted red-rumped swallows or anything out of the ordinary.

swallows

house martin

Also along the causeway were a pair of dunlin and a couple of common sandpiper. I picked up a white wagtail but it flew before I could get an image. Yellow wagtails were also still present including the "Channel" wagtail although they were put to flight by a jogger before I could get close enough.

dunlin 

We made our way to Shrike Meadow and to see if we could locate the grasshopper warbler that has been present for a week or so. I must admit that I had never before been in the hide there! It overlooks the meadow and a small pool which housed a returning reed warbler as well as sedge warbler. A cuckoo passed over and across to a large oak tree at the northern side where it alighted and called continuously. Then the distinctive reeling of the gropper (shortened version of the name grasshopper warbler) could be heard away to the right of the hide but I couldn't locate the bird. Groppers along with nightingales are one of the birds that I most eagerly await for each spring and have that wow factor even though they are a plain and nondescript looking species. But what they lack in looks they make up for in that charismatic and characteristic reeling song which they broadcast with mouth wide open whilst perching in a bush or on a reed or grass stem. They can be very difficult to pin down because they are also ventriloquists par excellence and can fool you into thinking they are somewhere where they are not. I decided that the gropper must be singing from the adjacent hedgerow so we made our way along it. The reeling continued but it was apparent that the bird was out in the grassy meadow and not in the hedge. Luckily Thames Water have left a gap in the bushes through which you can view the northern section of the meadow. On reaching this gap we both clocked the gropper immediately perched in a clump of rough grasses about 50 yards away. The song though sounded as if it was still coming from our right! The bird was very active and changed its song perch frequently but kept up the performance almost continually. After about 10 minutes it finally settled a bit closer and allowed some record shots to be taken despite the now quite heavy rain. Scope views were somewhat better!

grasshopper warbler

Then the fun really started with a text message at 11:55 from Badger informing that 2 great skuas (or bonxies) had been seen over Farmoor 1! For once we were in the right place at the right time so we left the gropper to it and hurried back up to the reservoir. The reservoir was now shrouded in mist and visibility had deteriorated somewhat but there was no mistaking the skuas. Great skuas are big, as large as buzzards, and are much more vicious, preying on seabirds and their fish dinners. The fact that these two were so far inland was a major surprise but I guess it goes to show that birds are flying around high up above the country all the time and presumably these had been "grounded" by the rain. They flew across over Farmoor 2 and disappeared into the mist. That I thought was that and we thanked our lucky stars that we'd been able to connect. Although we've seen lots of bonxies in Scotland and elsewhere around the coast in England these were a county tick (must actually write that list up one day) having missed the previous ones at Farmoor and Otmoor.

great skuas (in the mist)

We returned to the gropper but that had fell silent so we made our way back to the on site cafe for some nourishment of our own. I then noticed the skuas sat out on F2 so that hadn't left after all but as per the Farmoor conundrum they seemed to be right out in the middle so close views wouldn't be possible. 

skuas (at rest on F2)

At 14:00 the skuas took to the air, circled the reservoirs a few times while gaining height and then departed to the west at 14:12. Just over a two hour stopover and not quite long enough for many birders who turned up just too late!

bonxies away!

In tandem with Jim we noticed many swallows had taken to settling on the embankment walls. They must have been exhausted as well as confused and were probably wondering why they had bothered coming back to Blighty and such awful conditions so soon!

tired swallows (thanks to Jim for use of photo)

Sunday morning, weather wise, was much the same with drizzle and an even colder wind that had turned to the north. There were still many hirundines and swifts over the water but in fewer numbers than the day before. The stronger wind actually made gaining photos easier since it slowed the birds right up if they tried to fly into it so I managed slightly better images this time.

swifts

house martin

sand martin and swallows

swift (with eye on the fly!)

swallows

The 3 dunlin were still present and were more confiding too posing for some nice shots. Of the 3 one was noticeably larger than the others and had grey edges to the back feathers so I think was of the race "alpina" which breeds in Scandinavia and Siberia rather than our normally encountered "schinzii". The size difference is certainly apparent in some of the images below.

dunlin "schinzii" 

dunlin "schinzii" front, "alpina" behind

dunlin "alpina"

An oystercatcher flew over and a common sandpiper was suitably flighty further along the causeway. Yellow wagtails were still foraging along the edge of F2 but there was no sign of the "Channel" or white cousins (although undoubtedly still around). Arctic terns were still present but sadly didn't come as close in as the common terns.

common sandpiper 

common tern

oystercatcher

yellow wagtails

Finally the mallard duck and her 8 ducklings along the causeway were still all present and correct and appeared to be thriving. 

mallard & ducklings