Saturday 29 May 2010

Gilfach Farm

The forecast for the weekend was wall
to wall sunshine and after seeing a few
nice photo's of Pied Flycatchers from Gilfach
farm I decided a trip was in order.

Gilfach Farm is just outside the small town of
Rhyaddar. It's a fairly small reserve with a
chance of all the woodland species including
Wood Warbler, Redstart, Nuthatch and of
course Gilfach's star birds the Pied
Flycatcher's.

A short walk to the first hide produced
my first Pied Flycatcher's. The male
was outside the nestbox singing away
while the female was busy collecting
food for her young.









Close to the hide run's a stream which
produced views of tree pipit (albiet distance)
and Dipper. The woodland itself produced
Redstart although much of the time distant
and far to dark for photo's.

Around the reserve the sound of Woodpeckers
could be heard along with Nuthatch and Wood
Warbler. A short walk to the farmhouse
produced Redstart which were being treated
to a small bowl of mealworm kindly put out
by the warden.

The warden spoke of a Tawny Owl that had
nested close to the Farmhouse in fact she had
produced two young. He kindly walked
me to where she could be seen sat snoozing
and allowed me to get a few photo's. A big
thank you for that Pip.



The young Tawny's were around but right at
he very top's of the tree's so no really chance
of a shot of theses little fur balls. At least not
without disturbing them anyhow.

A short distance from the car park produced
at least three Crossbills, All busily munching
away on cones and making a right mess
of the path. Apparently this was how they first
noticed.





Seeing most of what Gilfach had to offer I moved
on to Crossgates a small village just outside
Rhyaddar on my way home. I've been past
it a few time's and noticed the gorse bushes
and open field but never had the time to stop
off and take a look until today.

A short walk to the surrounding gorse produced
a young Stonechat.
There were also Linnet but always distant.
A walk accross the field gave good views' of
Skylark.





I think the heat of day may have been
getting to this one...I caught him panting!


Well worth a stop and a good end to the day.

Tuesday 11 May 2010

Out and about!

May started out with a trip too
Ynys-hir with my local RSPB group.

Reports were good and hope's were
high for Pied Flycatcher and Wood
Warbler. As we arrived just after high
tide it seemed a good idea to start with
a trip along the estuary.

Along the pathway to the estuary we
found a very obliging Sedge Warbler
which sat quite happily while we took
a few shots.
Apart from the Sedge Warblers that were
around we managed to see Little Egret,
Reed Bunting, Canada geese and
Greylag geese. Apart from that though
it was pretty quite.


From the Estuary we made our way up
into the woodland. Although the Flycatcher's
were around trying to photograph them
was really difficult. In fact... I never managed
a single shot.

Throughout the Woodland we see Redstart,
Pied Flycatcher, Wood Warbler and Garden
Warbler none of which wanted there
photo taken.

On the other side of the reserve we found
Swallow's gathering Mud for there new
homes, and we managed a glimpse
of the Welsh Osprey carrying what looked
to be a 2lb Trout up river.

On the walk back to the vistors centre
Wheatear and Winchat were found, again
too distant for anything other than
record shots but a good end to the day.


Last weekend I decided to stay local.

I hadn't been up on the Malvern Hills
for while and with plenty of Dottrel
being seen around I thought it might
be worth a shot...well I was wrong.

Although not all bad, I did at last get
to grips with a pair of Stonechat.



And a Redstart!...albeit the Female.



I'll work on the male next week, In
fact there were three male's in the
area...She must be a good looking
bird!

Apart from that though that was it
really not much else around apart from
the occasional Linnet that dropped onto
the gorse every now and then.

Monday 3 May 2010

Castlemorton Common

As the nights grow longer it gives me
chance to get out and visit my local
common at Castlemorton.



Over the past few night's I've been
lucky enough to see Cuckoo,
Chiffchaff, Stonechat, Linnet and
even Grasshopper Warbler!



Here's a few picture's!







Nest building is well underway!


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