Stuck on the farm...

After an unexpected heavy snow fall in the night, my plans to go out putting up bird boxes came to a holt when I couldn't get the car up the lane!! Luckily there's always something to see on the farm. This weekend is the rspb's Big Garden Bird Watch, where they ask people to spend an hour in there garden, making a note of all the birds that visit it. Since I've changed the feeders around, it's not been as easy to count the birds, because when they are feeding you have to look out of one window, and when they're not you have to look out of a different window on the other side of the house. Anyway, here's what I managed to count- 1 male Redpoll,

35+ Siskins, 10+ Goldfinches, 20+ Chaffinches, 10+ Greenfinches, 1 Bullfinch, 25+ Blue Tits, 10+ Great Tits, 5+ Coal Tits, 1 Marsh Tit, 10+ Blackbirds, 5+ Robins, 3+ Nuthatches, 4+ Dunnocks, 12+ House Sparrows, 1 Fieldfare, 2 Great Spotted Woodpeckers, 2 Crows, 2 Magpies, 3 Jays, 1 Sparrowhawk and 8+ Starlings.

Not a bad days birding really!

Black Kite revisited...

Decided to have a third got at the Black Kite at gigrin today (it's great to have a rarity on your doorstep!). It showed amazingly well again, with around 400 of it's red cousins.

Other birds present included 20+ Buzzards, 50+ Crows, 15+ Rooks, 10+ Ravens, 2 Grey Herons, 3 Pied Wagtails and 6 Long-tailed Tits.

A wild 'Grouse' chase...

Me and dad set off to R.W.T Becon Hill this morning , as I had been asked by the rwt it I could carry out some bird surveys over the winter to see what was up there as they had no records up there for the winter months. This was the 1st decent chance of getting up to the reserve in over 2 months either because of bad weather or other commitments! The roads were still a bit dodgy but we were determined to get there, we even had to walk a mile or so to get to the reserve from where we had to park because there was still lots of snow there. Ironically were saw more birds walk there (Yellowhammer, Stock Dove, Pheasant and other odds and sods) than on the reserve it's self. After spending several hours looking for Red Grouse we finally heard one calling, and before long we saw him. We then tried to look to see where he had flown to, then out of the heather he popped and another one, great. After watching and listening to them for a few more minutes a third bird got up out of the heather, fantastic - well worth the sweat and tears getting there!!

1st Jack Snipe of the year...

Myself and Tony set off to north Rads early this morning to see if we could find any Woodcock to ring as there seem to be fewer and fewer on the coast since the thaw set in. We only managed to catch 1 out of 12 very jumpy Woodcock, but we did manage to catch our 1st Jack Snipe of the year (7 ringed between us last year, so a long way to go yet!), which made up for the lack of Woodcock.

Early morning ringing...

With the moon not setting until very late in the night at the moment, the only chance of ring for the next few days is first thing in the morning before light, so at 03:00 me and tony set off to Ynyslas to see what we could catch. Disspite there being far fewer birds around we caught 4 Lapwings, 3 Woodcock and a Snipe.

Birding in Cardiff...

I decided to come home the long way from Essex and do some birding in Cardiff. After getting my UK year list over 100 birds I was keen to see what I could get my welsh list up to. 1st stop was Goldcliff pools, plenty of birds here including a redhead smew, 150+ Grey Plovers, 150+ Knot, 1 Greenshank and a Spotted Redshank (other year ticks included Turnstone and Gadwall). Next stop Cardiff Bay, were I saw the returning Lesser Scaup, 2 Greater Scaup and loads of Coots.

Final Stop before heading home was Cosmeston Lakes, where I was hoping to catch a glimpse of a Bittern. Sadly no joy on that front, but I did manage to add a few more birds on to my year list including Common Gull, and Pink-foot Goose (Wales year list is now 110)

Ringing @ Ynyslas...

With the thaw now set in myself, Dad, Tony, Donal and Jane set off to Ynyslas to see what birds were around and how they had coped in the recent cold snap! Despite almost a month of harsh weather, all of the birds caught were a very healthy weight! Birds trapped and ringed included 10 Woodcock, 4 Snipe, 7 Lapwings, 1 Golden Plover, 2 Redshanks and 1 Oystercatcher.

Wigeon @ Nantmel

Had a look down at the old tip this evening to see if there were any Water Rails about, sadly I couldn't locate any, they probably got pushed off during the last couple of weeks of harsh weather?! On the way back to the car I could hear several Mallards calling and then what I thought was a Wigeon? I kept very still and quite for a few minutes to see if I could confirm what I had just heard. A few moments later I could hear at least 2 Wigeon calling. Wow, a Nantmel 'tick' for me!

Whoopers.....

Took a trip to Aberhafesp (near Newtown) today to see if the Whoopers were on their usual wintering grounds. Despite the fields being very flooded from the recent rainfall and melting snow I spotted 20 Whoopers. They were mostly adults, but a couple of family groups could be seen amongst them. Other birds of interset on the trip 'up north' included Lapwing, Bullfinch, Herrring and Lesser Black-backed Gull.

Needle in a hay stack....

After hearing yesterday that there was a Bean Goose with the 250+ Canada Goose flock in Clifford (very close to the Radnorshire border), I decided to get up very early before work to see if I could find this bird on the welsh side of the river. My first point of call was the ox-bow lake just downstream from Glasbury (a place where I had seen large flocks of Canadas before). Although it was still darkish when I got there, there was just about enough light to get a shape of what birds were about. Birds on the lake included Wigeon, Teal, Mallard, Goosander, Mute Swan, Snipe, Curlew, Lapwing, Pheasant, Reed Bunting and Bullfinch, but no Geese!!! I then remembered that I had also seen large flocks of Canadas about 5 miles downstream near cabalva farm, so off I went. As I arrived I could see the Canada flock, but finding the Bean Goose among them was another matter. No matter where I looked I couldn't see it! But then out of no where it appeared. It was a bit far away, and I don't mind admitting that I couldn't really tell if it was a Pink-foot or a Bean Goose, but according to the Herefordshire birders who had seen a lot closer than I have, it was indeed a 1st winter Bean Goose, a first for Wales for me, wahoo!

Black Kite again....

I went back to try and get some better views of the Black Kite again today. Dispite the doom and gloom, he and his cousins put on a fantastic display.

Earlier in the day myself and Tony ringed a Jay (+1 re-trapped) and a Blackbird in the garden.

The Gigrin Experience

Sadly I couldn't make it into work today due to the snow! Fortunately Kev was going to Gigrin to see the Black Kite and had offer to pick me and Robin up on the way. After freezing our whatsits off in the hides for about half an hour we got a very brief glimpse of the Black Kite, but sadly this was to be the only one! Luckily the 500+ Red Kites put on an amazing display, which helped me forget about the poor view of the Black Kite!

'Twitching' in Ceredigion.

Keen to keep my year list ticking over, my dad and I decided to go to the coast to rack a few more new species for the year. Places visited included Ynyslas, Borth, the Clettwr, Aberystwyth and Cwmreidol.

Highlights included:

Ynyslas- Common Scoter, Red-throated Diver, Little Egret and Pintail.

Clettwr- Black-tailed Godwit, Goldeneye, Kingfisher and Dipper.

Aberystwyth- Black Redstart and Purple Sandpiper.



Cwmreidol- Ring-necked Duck and this very pale Buzzard!

A good start to the year....

Nantmel.

Another year, another bird list! I’m one of these people that likes to do a bird list every year, so this morning I set off with the dogs around the farm to see what we could find. The thing that stood out the most for me was upto 7 Treecreepers! I don’t remember seeing this many before but it might just be that I haven’t been looking for them? Other birds seen included Nuthatch, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Marsh Tit, Willow Tit (2 heard only), Siskin, Goldfinch, Bullfinch, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Goldcrest, Reed Bunting, Dunnock, House Sparrow, Robin, Blackbird, Redwing, Great Spotted Woodpecker (they have been drumming for a week now), Stock Dove, Jackdaw, Crow, Raven, Red Kite and Buzzard.

Llandod.

Drake still present on the lake today, also a handful of Goosanders and the usual gang of Cananda Geese, Mute Swans, Mallards, Coots and Moorhens.

Llanfihangel

10 of us enjoyed the amazing roost this evening, which again attracted the raptors, including 10+ Buzzards, 1 Peregrine, 1 Sparrowhawk and 2+ Goshawks. Othter birsd seen included 1 Filedfare and right at the end a Woodcock seen leaving it’s daytime roost.