It's half term, the current Mrs Jenkins-Jones and beloved daughter are away for a few days leaving us boys at home - let's get some birding in! Well, that was the plan for Gethin and me but a). I didn't fancy a trip to Chipping Norton, b). I didn't fancy a trip to a landfill site near Rainham, c). there's nowt else about and d). the weather is awful. Luckily, the Pink-footed Geese appeared to be still hanging around Kenfig NNR - so that's where we headed off to yesterday.
No sooner had we arrived in the car park than the Pink-feet flew over our heads down towards the Pool. It's strange that, after witnessing the breathtaking spectacle of thousands of Pink-feet in Norfolk less than a month ago, I was equally as chuffed to see just 14 of these geese here in my adopted home county - such is their scarcity in Glamorgan.
It was nice to bump into Martin Bell in the car park. He'd just returned from a birding trip to The Gambia with Rob Gaze, Phil Hill, Mike Hogan and Martin Bevan. A cracking week's birding by all accounts. To read their trip report click here.
When we arrived at the Pool the geese were right in the middle of the water. Nevertheless, I still got this 'stonking' photo of some of them . . . .
It was good to see good numbers of the more usual wildfowl on the water: Gadwall, Shoveler, Tufted Duck, Pochard, Goldeneye etc. We had to work hard though to find just one pair of Mallard. Sadly, there were no fly-by Bitterns.
A quick yomp down to Sker Point/Kenfig Sands didn't yield as much as we'd hoped for. Only a lone Purple Sandpiper and 4 Turnstone at the very far end of Sker Point, and around a dozen Curlew and some Oycs on the beach. Newton Beach, our next stop, only added one new wader - a Grey Plover. The Ogmore Estuary was similarly quiet and we dipped again on the local Little Owls. Roll on the Spring.
Still, it's not all bad. Geth and I are having a night in tonight with some take-away pizzas, a beer or two for me, full control of the TV remote control and some birding DVDs we received for Christmas. Don't you love it when 'the cat's away'?
It is with great sadness that we have to announce the break up of a wonderful relationship here in Birders in Boxers - Wayne's 'Dipmobile' is no longer with us. Gone into the hands of a non-birder who will never ever rev it up at the crack of dawn to travel hundreds of miles for a spectacular dip.
The one and only - the original 'Dipmobile'
A faithful friend, Wayne's trusty steed never let us down. (It's a shame the same can't be said for the birds we chased in it). Many a happy hour was spent in its comfy seats on our way to twitch the latest mega. Many more unhappy hours were spent in it on our way home from dipping on the latest mega.
R.I.P. Dipmobile - we'll miss you. But hang on . . . what's this?
Yes, Wayne has upgraded to an MPV Ford Galaxy. A 7 seater motor no less, and two of the seats can be folded down to make room for our 'scopes, tripods, flasks and sarnies - not forgetting Jeff's cameras and long lenses. More legroom for the boys on those long journeys. We'll probably continue dipping, but at least now we can dip in comfort.
"The Dipmobile is Dead - Long Live the Dipmobile!"
Somehow managing to squeeze all our luggage, 'scopes, tripods and Tunnock's caramel wafers into the boot of the car, Kev (driver), Wayne (navigator), Geri (entertainment) and I (erm, making up the numbers) left Cardiff for our annual Norfolk jolly on Saturday, Jan 29th.
'Plan A' was to call in first at Buckenham Marshes/Cantley to bag the Lesser White-fronted Goose. Unfortunately, the goose must have got wind of our plans and promptly naffed off a couple of days before we arrived. Never mind, this area is always a great place to start a trip to Norfolk.
The wilderness of Buckenham Marshes
We called in at Strumpshaw Fen on the way and picked up Marsh Tit and Brambling on the reserve centre feeders. At Buckenham there were shedloads of Eurasian Wigeon on the marshes and, on the River Yare, a Red-necked Grebe. We walked along the river, each of us getting taller with each step as the clay stuck to our boots, and soon enough we were watching around 60 Taiga Bean Geese. My best ever views of them - even though it took me five minutes longer than everybody else to get them in my 'scope.
Bean and Greylag Geese
By the time we got back to the car Geri, Wayne and I were covered in clay. Kev on the other hand was spotless. That's what 30 years in the Royal Navy teaches you.
No time to hang around. Our next stop was the Horsey area to go curb-crawling for some leggy beauties - Cranes. Three pairs of sharp eyes, and mine, were not enough to find any 'on the deck', but we did pick up our first Hen Harrier of the trip which was flying alongside a Marsh Harrier; hundreds of Golden Plover and the first of many Barn Owls. On to Stubb Mill, we were greeted by other birders who were waiting for the Cranes to come in to roost. One birder 'greeted' us by telling us to get out of his way. Seeing as we were not in his way, the trip almost began with Kevin putting him 'on the deck'. As tempers cooled we enjoyed watching a kamikaze Peregrine causing panic as it nose-dived a 'flock' of c.35 Marsh Harriers; a male Merlin and finally, 3 Common Cranes.
Within an hour we arrived at our digs for the trip - The Kings Arms at Blakeney - where we were given a warm welcome (and a free round of drinks) by landlord, and Welshman in exile, Nick Davies. Within no time we were tucking into some excellent food and beer in the company of fellow Glamorgan birders Alan Rosney, Mike Wheeler and Gareth Jenkins who were staying nearby.
Day 2 began with a trip to the East Bank at Cley. The long-staying American Wigeon was found without too much trouble before we added Spoonbill,Ruff, Knot, Redshank, Grey Plover, Dunlin, Curlew, Black and Bar-tailed Godwit on Arnold's Marsh. Moving on to the beach 3 Shorelark were picking their way along the shingle. We didn't expect to see much during a brief sea-watch because, for once, there wasn't a great deal of wind. But, nonetheless we did manage to find a few Red-throated Divers and Slavonian Grebes.
Seawatching at Cley - can you ID Glamorgan birders from behind?
Despite the calm, sunny, conditions we dipped on Bearded Tits in the reeds and headed off for Weybourne where we were soon looking at some Lapland Buntings. Once we managed to get Geri back in the car (is there anywhere you can take him where he doesn't bump into somebody he knows?), we tanked east up the A149 to Holme. Within no time at all we'd found our target bird - Long-tailed Duck - and had also added Snow Bunting and Sanderling to our trip list. Everything was going smoothly . . . too smoothly. It was about time something didn't go to plan.
And so it did, when we assembled with a gang of other birders at Thornham to wait for the Northern Harrier. We waited and waited as dusk began to fall and the temperature dropped like a stone. Finding a small covey of Grey Partridges didn't do much to lift our spirits - especially since we'd been well and truly gripped off by Alan, Mike and Gareth in the pub the night before, all of whom had cracking views of the harrier during the day. And then finally, it appeared. Or did it? A ringtail harrier was flying a couple of miles west of us in the direction of Titchwell. Completely untickable. Should we make a dash over to Titchwell? Surely we'd have better views of it over there? We hummed and haahed and dithered, and when we finally got to Titchwell we were informed that the Harrier had flown over the path five minutes before we arrived. *@!&#{*!. Watching Marsh Harriers and 3 Bitterns coming into roost was not much consolation. Neither was watching half a dozen Woodcock leaving for their night's feeding either.
Day 3 saw us heading west again. A quick stop at Burnham Overy and our luck was back in when we immediately got on to 2 Rough-legged Buzzards who performed beautifully.
RLB - Jeff Slocombe eat your heart out!
Calling in briefly at Choseley it was great to see some Corn Buntings and Yellowhammers still clinging on in the area and, on our drive back to the main road, a lone Waxwing sat up on the top of a tree. Further west we arrived at Flitcham Abbey Farm where it was nice to see the return of some good numbers of Tree Sparrow. From the hide the local Little Owl obliged us as usual. But, despite another patient bout of curb-crawling around Wolferton Triangle the local Golden Pheasants were less obliging.
Next stop Titchwell and its brand new Star Ship Enterprise (Parrinder) Hide - "It's a hide Jim, but not as we know it!"
The new Parrinder Hide at Titchwell
Hardly your traditional hide but it offered welcome shelter from the cold as we watched Spotted Redshank, Avocet (a lone bird and our only one of the trip), Twite and Skylark amongst other commoner wildfowl and waders. There was a huge flock of gulls on the freshwater scrape - and amongst them were a couple of Med Gulls. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention - on our way out to the hide Wayne found the Northern Harrier again! It performed beautifully, really showing off its orangey underparts in the sunshine and, even to my untrained eye, having a subtley different jizz to a Hen Harrier.
We left the warmth of the hide for another quick seawatch. There were hundreds of Common Scoter offshore but we couldn't turn any of them into a Velvet. We did however find a few more R-t Divers, some Eider and a couple of R-B Mergansers.
Next on the agenda - a dodgy (?) goose at Burnham Deepdale. But, before we got to that one we found another. Wayne (he deserves a medal - he was on fire on this trip), picked out a lone Barnacle Goose in a field amongst hundreds of Pink-footed Geese - while travelling at 60mph in the car! On arrival at Burnham Deepdale Wayne (again!) found our target bird about a mile away amongst thousands of Pink-feet - a Ross's Goose. But, before we could get our 'scopes on to it the whole flock - c.10,000 birds took off. *@#!. But no, hang on, they were heading our way! Before long we didn't need our 'scopes as the Ross's Goose circled directly above us. The whole flock landed in a field nearby before shortly being spooked and taking off in one huge mass. The sound they made was breathtaking - like a large train approaching. Wayne, captured some of it on his phone.
Spot the Ross's Goose. (Who needs a long lens?!)
To cap a perfect day, as daylight almost completely disappeared, we just about managed to make out two Smew on Wells Boating Lake in the gloom.
A trip to celebrate - and celebrate we did - until 3am accompanied by our host Nick and a certain amount of Nelson's Revenge, Port and Cherry Brandies!
And that was it - Norfolk 2011. On our way home we called in at Welney where we got Whooper Swan, another Long-tailed Duck and another duck whose name can't be mentioned cos it's got a price on its head. The Trip List of 136 was our highest ever winter trip list total in Norfolk - and we never managed to get to Holkham Hall to look for woodland birds. We'll do it all over again next year.
Hot off the press - the Co-op is currently selling Tunnock's Caramel Wafers (Birders in Boxers confectionary of choice) at the bargain price of £1 a packet - that's down an incredible 49p.
As you can see I have taken advantage of this generous offer
and completed all my packing for next weekend's trip to Norfolk.
Back in late 2009, Geth took on his new 'patch'. Somewhere he could occasionally go birding without his Dad - can you really blame him? Unfortunately for him, he couldn't get rid of his Dad that easily, because I took a liking to his patch too, and often accompanied him - well, I did if he wasn't getting up at the crack of dawn.
This patch is a pretty hefty one. It consists of all of the Forest Farm / Glamorgan Canal Nature Reserve and the land bordering it; the River Taff all the way up from Whitchurch to Tongwynlais and, on the other side of the river, the Taff's 'flood plain' to the east of Radyr. To cover the whole lot thoroughly takes about 5 hours. Geth has visited the patch almost once a week since he began - and many of those visits have been for the full 5hrs!
The Glamorgan Canal
There's a nice variety of habitats within the area we cover so we also see a nice variety of birds but, to add a little spice to each visit, Geth - ever the lister - likes to daylist every visit. His current record is 52, set during the cold weather last December. And apparently he missed a few easy birds that day so he's confident he can better that total! As a natural progression from daylisting, we decided that during 2010 we'd yearlist the patch. I have to confess that Geth put in a lot more effort than I did - but this is how we got on.
The undoubted highlight of the first winter period was the Bittern that turned up at Forest Farm. It turned up late in 2009 and hung around for a couple of months. A 1st for the site I think? Photographers came from all over Glamorgan to photograph it, spending many hours in the hides waiting for it to show. Amongst them a certain Andy Rouse, to whom Geth nonchanatly asked "How much does your camera cost?" "Oh, about £15 thousand", he cooly replied. If only Birders in Boxers own 2010 Glamorgan Photographer of the Year - Jeff 'Randy Grouse' Slocombe - had bought his camera and big lens by then. His would have given Mr Rouse a run for his money! The photo below is by Richard G Smith:
A Little Egret hung around for a few days but the only other highlight during this period was a pair of Teal - a female on the canal and a male in front of one of the hides. A very scarce bird on the reserve, these had undoubtedly appeared here as a result of cold weather displacement. Up to 6 Teal were again seen at the end of the year during the very cold December - but these were all seen on the R Taff.
The rest of winter was pretty quiet - all the woodland birds you'd expect really - as well as up to 6 Common Snipe, up to 6 Water Rail and several Reed Buntings from the hides. There were as many as 14 Goosander on the river and fly-over Lapwings and Skylarks were nice additions to the list. But we were disappointed not to find a Brambling, which are almost annual at Forest Farm.
But things soon picked up again in early spring when Geth 'discovered' the Radyr Flood Plain - on the other side of the Taff. I'd always fancied the look of this area but didn't know how to get there! But the Boy Birder wasn't going to let that stop him and found a way in! It's a nice piece of habitat - rough grassland, plenty of scrubby bits, loads of brambles, two cricket pitches, a nice long hedge and a mature tree-lined river bank.
A nice scrubby bit of the 'Radyr Flood Plain'
For the local bird recording purposes I call this area the 'Radyr Flood Plain', but Geth soon christened it 'The Scrub', and it was to prove a cracking area for birds throughout the year.
With summer migrants piling in we soon found Garden Warblers, Common Whitethroats, Willow Warblers and Chifchaffs. Reed Warblers bred in Forest Farm and Geth gripped me off by finding (surprisingly) the only Sedge Warbler of the year. Passage Common Sandpipers joined the Dipper, Kingfishers and Grey Wagtails on the river, while overhead there were good numbers of hirundines and Swifts. We were delighted when a female Kestrel hung around The Scrub for a few weeks but, even though a male Kestrel put in the odd appearance, they didn't breed.
The cricket pitch - good for Pied Wags, Mistle Thrushes and passage Wheatears.
We then had to wait until the autumn to get our list moving again - and it was The Scrub that turned up trumps. Several passage Wheatears hung around the closely cropped cricket pitch and in the bushes nearby we dug out a couple of Common Redstarts. Meadow Pipits and Linnets began to arrive but the best was yet to come. On one of his solo visits, Geth found a Pied Flycatcher in trees along the riverbank below Tongwynlais - and he hasn't let me forget it!
Radyr Weir - good for Dipper, Common Sand, Grey Heron and migrating Salmon.
November came and we were beginning to run out of species we thought we might get. A late night visit, creeping around the houses near the Canal, finally added Tawny Owl to our list. And then December and it's freezing weather arrived. Geth went down to the patch more regularly, leaving seed and fruit out for the birds. His good deeds were rewarded when he finally found a male Brambling at Forest Farm and a Stonechat at The Scrub.
Desperate birds allowed close approach during the cold weather
We were well aware that such awful weather could bring in a few unexpected birds so between Christmas and the New Year we were down there almost every day. And on the 27th we got lucky. In one 5 minute spell we added Wigeon, Tufted Duck and Coot to our list - all undoubtedly brought in by the weather and all seen on the R Taff above Radyr Weir. The Wigeon and Tuftie were new for our patch life list too.
No amount of snow was going to stop Geth from birding!
And those were our last three patch ticks of 2010. We ended the year on 84. Our patch life list is now 86 (in addition to the 84 we saw in 2010, I've seen Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and Lesser Redpoll there in the past - and I'm not counting the Wood Duck!).
What did we miss/what might we see in the future? Well, as I write there have been records of Marsh Tit and Shag (!) from the Glamorgan Canal during 2011. The Marsh Tit record is a welcome return. Historically the bird was recorded occasionally at the site but one hasn't been seen there for many years. (Yes, we have been looking for it but we've dipped so far). The Shag would be an incredible record to say the least. But, it comes from a credible source who has submitted a description to the County Recorder. Watch this space! But, if it's accepted it could only ever be considered a 'one off' record.
More realistically we were disappointed not to see Lesser Whitethroat or Spotted Flycatcher in 2010. Surely we should see one of these come the spring/summer? The Scrub should provide us with one or two other migrants too: a Grasshopper Warbler, a passage Whinchat, Tree Pipit or Cuckoo perhaps? Even a Yellow-browed Warbler! (God know I tried hard enough to find one there last year). Historically there have been records of both Firecrest and Jack Snipe at the Canal.
And of course, there's the Taff. A Green Sandpiper was recorded a mile or two up river last autumn, and I've heard that a Goldeneye has been seen on the Taff at Llandaff this winter. We could get lucky with some other wildfowl. We've had Canada Goose on the river so what about a Greylag Goose next? I can't believe we're getting excited over possibly seeing a dodgy Greylag! And talking of dodgy, I'll finish off with . . . .
One bird on the Canal that we didn't tick in 2010!!
It was good to see good numbers of the more usual wildfowl on the water: Gadwall, Shoveler, Tufted Duck, Pochard, Goldeneye etc. We had to work hard though to find just one pair of Mallard. Sadly, there were no fly-by Bitterns.
Yes, Wayne has upgraded to an MPV Ford Galaxy. A 7 seater motor no less, and two of the seats can be folded down to make room for our 'scopes, tripods, flasks and sarnies - not forgetting Jeff's cameras and long lenses. More legroom for the boys on those long journeys. We'll probably continue dipping, but at least now we can dip in comfort.
Seawatching at Cley - can you ID Glamorgan birders from behind?
A nice scrubby bit of the 'Radyr Flood Plain'
