A walk in the woods......

One of my favourite birds is Wood Warbler which for me is an iconic spring bird of our western oak woods, sadly in the Llynfi Valley where I live it has declined markedly and I've only had two birds in the last 5-6 years.
Following a tip off from Dan following a BBS survey I visited an oak wood yesterday morning only 20 minutes or so drive from my home and having parked only 100m from the entrance I could hear a Wood Warbler singing.
The bird was only about 60m from the entrance stile to the wood and I quickly picked it up as it flitted around the canopy perching occasionally on an old rotten tree which allowed me to get some nice shots.........

I was also hoping to catch up with Pied Flycatcher and Common Redstart but had no luck, I did however luck into a pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers feeding their young at their nest hole in an oak and watched then for 10 minutes getting some nice shots........

I walked back to the entrance to the wood and whilst passing the Wood Warbler again couldn't resist a few more shots.......

I moved on deciding to check out the nesting pair of Dippers that I had found last weekend on the River Ogmore at Aberkenfig hoping that I may see the parent birds feeding their young out of the nest but it looked as if the young had left the nest earlier in the week although one of the adults was still around.......

I decided to finish the day checking out a couple of my local Grasshopper Warbler territories and got lucky when one eventually showed out in the open allowing me the briefest of  opportunities........

An enjoyable day catching up with my 'target' bird which gave me a great photographic opportunity.

Grasshopper Warbler : Maesteg

After three weeks or so of finding and staking out four territories that I have found locally it finally came together tonight when one of the birds finally showed itself long enough for me to get a few shots and eventually climbed high enough up an old weed stalk to pick up some nice evening sunshine.............

Dotterel delight......

A last minute decision to visit Garreg Lwyd above Brynamman early this morning paid dividends with a 'trip' of seven Dotterel found on the summit.
I'd bargained that the overnight rain may force a few birds down on to this traditional passage site and so set off from home just after 8.00am, with very little traffic on the roads I made it to the car park below the mountain at 8.50am.
I'd forgotten how murderous the climb is which took me a full 45 minutes and as I arrived at the summit I spooked a 'trip' of seven birds which flew around to the south-west side.
It had been raining lightly since leaving home and after a brief search for the birds the weather worsened and I took shelter in the lea of the stone cairn near the trig point.

I was having more luck with Wheatears as I searched for the Dotterel and managed a few shots of a male and a female.

The Dotterel were proving difficult and I did a full circular walk of the summit and after a full two and a quarter hours since arrival I saw a little head above the grass as I scanned, at last I had found them and although I couldn't get as close as I would have liked as the group was quite flighty I came away with some shots that I was quite pleased with..............................................................................

Surprising what you can see through a 500mm lens from the top of a mountain..............................

I've visited Garreg Lwyd several times over the years with varying results, a 'trip' of 15 birds has been the best and sometimes only a couple of birds, other times nothing at all !!  Today's trek was certainly worth it, oh and by the way I also saw two Golden Plovers on the way down.                                          

Llynfi Valley wanderings........

A few images from my local wanderings in the valley on Saturday 29th April, managed to find a Dipper's nest which I'll revisit in a week or so and hopefully the youngsters will be out and may be being fed by the adults, will use a hide to avoid any disturbance......

Dipper

Dipper

Dipper

Dipper

Dipper

Grey Wagtail

Willow Warbler pretending to be a Xmas tree decoration

Common Whitethroat

Common Whitethroat

Common Whitethroat

Spring, so far..........

I haven't done a lot lately due to other commitments and a non-birding weekend away at Easter so I thought I'd just post a few images of some of our migrants and residents that I've caught up with locally........

Blackcap (Male)

Blackcap (Male)

Song Thrush

Goldcrest

Willow Warbler

Willow Warbler

Grasshopper Warbler

Grasshopper Warbler