Forest Farm-Return Visit

Had a great session at Forest Farm NR today with "Smudger",at least two male birds and a female present,birds elusive and uncooperative for most of day but one performed really well for a short spell mid-afternoon which made the wait very worthwhile.

"One easy,one not",read on............

The Kingfishers at Forest Farm had taken preference over a stay at the caravan last weekend and what with this being our final weekend of the season it gave me a chance of going for the returning Great Grey Shrike at Mynydd Illtyd on the outskirts of Brecon.
It's a large area of common heathland covered in bracken and gorse and holds amongst it's species Whinchat,Stonechat,Linnet,Meadow Pipit and Skylark.
I rolled up at about 09.30 on Saturday and after passing a small group of Fieldfares feeding in a hawthorn tree the next bird I saw was the shrike hunting from it's perch on one of the bracken bales (cut and harvested for bedding I am told),driver's side of the jeep and not 30' from me !!
There was nowhere to park and so I backed up to the nearest pull-in but on dashing back to the spot found that the bird had disappeared,I'd had cracking close views but the camera was in the boot of the Jeep,DOH !!
I spent the next 3 1/2 hours searching the common but to no avail,I did however come across a flock of c100 Golden Plover which with careful approach work gave me views down to about 20yds and the chance to get some shots in nice light that I was really quite pleased with.

I returned to the Jeep and decided to check out a different area and whilst driving along the common road came across fellow "togger" Steve Wilce setting up his gear.
I've been an admirer of Steve's work in the photo gallery of the Brecknock Birds website for some time but we hadn't ever met until Saturday,we chatted for a while before checking out an area where Steve has located the shrike in previous years.
Within five minutes we had found the bird high on some hawthorn on the far side of a field and it soon relocated to the fenceline between the field and the common.

It worked the fenceline hunting for prey and we followed it for over 1/2 mile never getting closer than about 60yds before it eventually disappeared.

I returned again on Sunday morning meeting up with Steve and we again gave chase to the bird along a different part of the common but never getting any closer than the previous day.
What a frustrating bird to try and photograph,it really gave us the runaround and can disappear for hours on end.
I doubt that will put me off though and I'll probably give it another go a few times over the coming months,"watch this space".....................

Happy 100th Bird-day!

There was a cause for celebration - and not a little frustration - for Geth and myself a couple of weeks ago  as we finally reached the milestone of seeing 100 species of birds on our Radyr Floodplain / Forest Farm / Glamorgan Canal local patch.

We've been occasional visitors to this area for the last 10 years or so, but only really started paying it some proper attention around 3 years ago, and found it to be a very productive area - particularly during the spring and autumn migration periods. See here and here.

Having had 99 species on our collective list for almost five months (both of us haven't seen all the birds on the list - Geth's seen 7 species I haven't seen, and I've seen 1 species he hasn't) provided us with plenty of opportunities to try and guess which species would bring up the century mark. Our 99th species was a fly-over Greylag Goose and we wanted the next patch tick to be something a little more special - and less plastic - than that.

We would never have guessed that that bird would be a Hawfinch. A scarce and elusive bird in Glamorgan and a true rarity for the Patch.

Hawfinch by Gethin

The story goes like this . . . . having visited the Patch together early every autumn weekend morning for several weeks, and enjoyed a cracking variety of migrant birds (more of that in our end of year 'Patch Report'), yours truly decided to have a lie in. Geth wasn't such a wimp and got his just reward.

As I sauntered onto the Floodplain and hour and a half after Gethin had arrived there, I received a breathless phone-call from the boy birder informing me that a Hawfinch had just flown over and landed on top of a bush in front of him. Panic! I ran at a speed I haven't matched since my school days and if I could repeat that running performance again I would have a fair chance of getting to Rio 2016. Sadly, (and that's the understatement of the century), I missed the bird by 10 SECONDS!!! It flew down onto the other side of the bush just before I arrived and was never seen again.

Thoughts of writing Gethin out of my Last Will and Testament were short-lived as he has kindly refrained from rubbing salt into my very sore wound.

Back home, Gwenni, Gethin's sister, kindly helped us celebrate this special occasion by baking a Happy 100th Bird-day Cake fit for The Great British Bake Off.


Happy Bird-day Cake by Gwenni Berry



PS We're still waiting for a congratulatory telegram from the Queen.

Colourful little gems...........

Having been up at the caravan or out of circulation with other committments in the last few weeks I'd missed out on the opportunity to photograph the Kingfishers that have been allowing my fellow "toggers" to "fill their boots" at Forest Farm,Cardiff.
With a dry,cold and sunny day forecast for today I decided that I'd try and catch up and so myself and Peter "Pedro" Morgan set off fairly early and got to the northern hide by 9.30am.
As we arrived at the hide we were informed by another "togger" that a Kingfisher was showing close in right in front of the hide and so we immediately got on to the bird,what a stroke of luck !!

Two males showed on and off allowing us both to get some shots and Dan and Geth duly arrived after a couple of hours patch watching.

We all enjoyed some great views and shortly after Wayne "Pliers" Morris joined us following a morning's ringing down at Cardiff Bay.
We moved down to the other hide hoping to catch up with the Jack Snipe that had been seen earlier in the week and thoght that we had got on to it in the distant cut reeds but after closer examination we all agreed the bird we were watching was of the Common variety.

A female Kingfisher turned up and showed well and myself and Peter "filled our boots" as it gave great views.
Dan and Geth decided to head for home and myself,Peter and Wayne decied we'd spend a little more time in the north hide where another bird again showed really well.

There's only so many Kingfisher photos you can take so Wayne headed for home and myself and Peter birded our way back west via Nash Point,Cwm Nash,Southerdown and Ogmore the only birds of note seen being M+F Blackcap and a pair of Choughs.

Tits Galore !!

Having not been up the caravan for a couple of weeks and with a good forecast my aim this weekend was to try and photograph Willow Tit at a site I'd been made aware of by Brecknock county recorder Andy King.
Saturday dawned as forecast dry,warm and sunny and I was joined by fellow "togger" Peter Morgan who roled up at the caravan at 9.00am.
We had both connected with Willow Tit at Nelson Wern back last winter but with poor light on a cold afternoon had struggled to get any really good images.
Peter was particularly keen to connect with Marsh Tit which for him would be a "lifer" and is a bird that I've found easily in the small wood opposite the entrance to the caravan site where probably two pairs appear to breed anually.
We strolled the short distance to the wood where one bird was calling and very quickly another appeared and although flighty at first settled down to give us both the chance at getting some reasonable shots.
That was easy, "piece of p..s this birding" !!

We moved on to the Willow Tit site and stopped in at Usk Reservoir on the way to check it out in the hope of a late passage Osprey,no such luck so we moved on the short drive to the Willow Tit site.
We pulled into Pont ar Wysg car park and walked the short distance to the conifer plantation which along it's edges and in open areas had plenty of Willow scrub.
I played the call several times on my iPhone but got no response,we walked the track back and fore where we suspected the birds were hanging out and picked up Blue,Great,LT and Coal Tit but still no sign of our target bird.
It was a glorious day although the light was too harsh for any decent photography and there were plenty of other birds about,Goldcrests flitted in the pines,a late passage Spotted Flycatcher didn't hang around,a Goshawk passed over and four Red Kites were seen.
Finally after a couple of hours we heard the distinct call of a Willow Tit and picked up what was a very mobile bird in the scrub at the side of the track.

We bided our time and eventually managed to get a few shots in the harsh sunlight,there were at least three different birds present during our time at the site but they were all quite active and mobile.
We called it a day mid afternoon and Peter dropped me back at the caravan before heading for home.