FIELD VOLE

 I've got a field voles nest under my bird table in the garden, I suppose there's going to be rodents around the house as I do feed the birds regularly giving them a regular supply of food.

I've managed to capture a bit of Field vole action and take a picture but they're so skittish and fast that it took a while of sitting still with a bit of patience to get the photo and footage.

field vole

Although very cute they're one of the main reasons the Tawny owls are doing so well so they must be pretty abundant, lets hope so.

THE BIG CHANGES IN MY PATCH BIRDING

It's good sometimes to have a wonder around the farm to see what's about. Although not massive the Farm is I suppose my local patch and over the years there's been a lot of change, with some birds doing ok and other species no longer breeding or even seen up here. The Yellowhammer, Greenfinch, Lapwing, Whinchat, Curlew, Grey partridge and little owl have all for some reason disappeared.

On the mountain top above the farm there are still good numbers of Skylark and Meadow pipit, I've also seen Snipe Merlin and the occasional Hen Harrier a very rare mountain raptor indeed now, but I wonder how long these will hang on for with the non policing of 4x4 vehicles and scrambling motor bikers ripping up the habitat. 

Opposite the Farm is the Canyons as it is known locally it had steep rock faces with a thick covering of conifers. Firstly during covid someone stuck it on social media and within a couple of weeks the place was awash with youths and families with picnic baskets alcohol and the rest trampling and littering the place with no consideration of the beauty they were damaging. Then the owner of the canyons took all the trees down which has left now bare steep sided mounds. I suppose some birds might move in if that habitat is suitable, but we've lost birds like Coal tit, Siskin, Crossbill, Goldcrest as well as breeding Long eared Owls and Goshawk. Within the canyons there were breeding Peregrines and Raven which could be lost as well.

as it was

beautiful

as it is now

some of the logs from the fallen trees

At our home every year we try to improve the habitat for the birds with the planting of fruit and berry trees putting up nest boxes has helped our hole nesters and of course the owl boxes. This year we're looking to put a pond in and do more planting with I hope the addition of a privet hedge.

Here's some bird pics now of some of the birds we still have left on the farm.

great tit

tree pipit a summer migrant

swallow another summer visitor

woodpigeon

robin

blackbird

dunnock

greenwoodpecker

jay

linnet

blue tit

coal tit

meadow pipit

We'll have to see what happens in the future, hopefully the local authorities will do more to protect what we've got left, lets hope so, I know I'll be doing my bit it would be a travesty to lose any more species.

STONECHATS

Every year  we get a few pair of Stonechats at the farm. The males are very handsome birds with the females being a slightly toned down version of the males.

male stonechat

and the female

About a week ago I was lucky enough to stumble across a Stonechats nest, they make their nests in a tussock of grass amongst dead ferns or other cover. I was slightly concerned about this nest as it was on the side of a walkers path so I hope it's successful.

stonechats nest

Here's a short video of the male Stonechat staking out it's territory.

A cracking small bird of our mountain sides and as always it's great to watch this colourful chat and lets hope that the nest makes it, catch you soon.

SOME SPRING ARRIVALS

 It's great to see the Spring migrants returning to the farm. I had the Wheatear arrive a couple of weeks ago and now all my usual visitors have arrived back except for the Swallow which surprisingly hasn't shown up yet.

The sound of the Willow warbler and it's song as it goes down the scale is always a welcome addition.

willow warbler singing

willow warbler

We never get Chiffchaff up here, don't really know why it might be that the habitat is not right for them but who knows.

Also a nice surprise this spring was this male Blackcap that showed up in the garden.

blackcap

 Also not long arrived back were the Redstarts this cheeky male was perched on the wife's car wing mirror attacking it's own reflection.

redstart

redstart attacking it's reflection

They are a beautiful bird especially the Spring males they'll be starting to breed soon hopefully in one of my bird boxes I've put out around the farm.

female

male

I suppose the migrant species everyone looks forward to hearing and if your lucky enough seeing is the Cuckoo.

This male was giving a bit of a performance from a tree near my home so didn't take that much notice of me luckily I was able to get some pics of him.

cuckoo

cuckoo

great to see them back

Nice to see the migrants back they bring some colour and song to the farm, they've had a long journey so lets hope they're successful.

TRAIL CAM TAWNY'S

 A while back I blogged about a pair of Tawny Owls I had in a box near my home at the farm. Although I haven't checked the box my guess is that the female is either sitting on eggs by now or they've got chicks. You can hear them calling most nights and I'd love to get a bit of night time footage of them.

The wife bought me a trail camera for christmas this year, and a birding friend of mine told me if you put two perches in the ground about three feet apart with one lower than the other then there would be a good chance that one of the Owls would land on it. The camera would go on the lower perch because he said the Owls will prefer the taller perch.

So I did just that, I thought it a bit of a long shot but you never know I might have a bit of luck.

trail cam set up for the owls

In the picture above you can see my set up and you can just make out the Owls nest box in the first tall tree.

I waited for about a week to look to see if I'd been lucky and I couldn't believe my eyes the owl had landed on the perch. The clip isn't very long as I had my camera set to take just twenty seconds of footage but I'm well pleased with it.

Here's a picture of one of the Tawny's sat at the box I wonder if it was this individual that was the first to sit on my perch and be videoed.

tawny owls at the entrance hole

I was well pleased to get the footage even though it was rather short, I've increased the length of the clips and set the camera back up again to hopefully have some more footage of these cracking birds. 

FIRST SPRING ARRIVAL

 The first spring arrival landed at the farm a couple of weekends ago in the form of this Wheatear.

Wheatears are nearly always the first migrants to fly in. They winter in  Africa and this one was eagerly feeding on insects and other invertebrates to replenish it's reserves after it's long migration flight.

first summer male wheatear

It also managed to stay still enough for a while for me to get some digiscoping footage.

Lovely to see them back up here again this year and it's just the start of the spring migration season so let's hope a few more of our summer visitors turn up in the coming weeks.

MORE BIRDS FROM THE LAKE

 Whilst up Cwmtillery lakes looking for the Dippers I decided to have a good scout around to see what other ornithological treats were up there. I wasn't disappointed with some nice birds on show not only on the lake but walking up to and on the reservoir.

mallard

female mallard

There's always good numbers of mallards on the lake with people always willing to feed them.

coot

moorhen

There's also good numbers of Coots and Moorhens.

female goosander

This female Goosander was a lovely sight, the males must be around somewhere but not to be seen on this occasion.

little grebe

The little Grebe's have established themselves at the lake now and this one was in it's full spring breeding plumage.

lesser black backed gull

There's usually numbers of gulls around and on the lake this one is a Lesser Black Backed Gull.

grey wagtail

At the top side of the lake is a man made river that runs down from the reservoir, it's become pretty overgrown at it's edges I spotted this male Grey Wagtail at the waters edge.

kestrel

This distant Kestrel was hunting over the mountainside.

grey heron

cormorant 

This Heron and Cormorant took flight one at the ponds below the reservoir and one on the reservoir itself.

So a nice selection and a great couple of hours spent out with the camera at my old stomping ground really enjoyed it.

DIPPERS

Made my way upto Cwmtillery Lakes a few weeks ago to see if the Dippers were still there. Being born and bred in Cwmtillery I can remember Dippers breeding up there in the 1970's.

I settled down with my camera at the ready for what seemed to be an age before one came in with a clump of nesting material they were still here, and starting to build their nest excellent.

dipper with nesting material

It dropped down into the tunnel at the bottom side of the lake where the water flows into where the nest must be. It's good that they're nesting there because the tunnel is shut off by a metal grid to stop people going in there.

I then waited for what seemed an age before it made an appearance and stayed for a good few seconds, allowing me to get some more images before it set off I suspect to look for more nesting material.

nice pose before it set off

Nice to see the Dippers doing well and hopefully bringing on the next generation of these lovely aquatic song birds.