A TASTE OF SPRING

Spring migrants and our resident birds were everywhere over the weekend at the farm some carrying nesting material some frantically feeding up some feeding chicks and some singing and calling. With the weather being so absolutely beautiful it was a real taste of Spring and a real feeling of pleasure to be out and about.

I had a great day's birding where the list of migrants were :- 
Willow Warbler, Wheatear, Redstart, Tree Pipit and both male and female Cuckoo.

BLACK NOT RED

black redstart

female common redstart

This time of year us birders eagerly await the arrival of our Spring migrants.
So when I got home from work on Monday last week I thought that I had spotted my first Redstart of the spring, bright red tail drab in appearance yes I thought a female. I grabbed my camera and took a few snaps then put my pic's on a Facebook site called Gwent Birders, it's a local site for people that are interested in Birds and wildlife where they can post pictures and share information. Within 10 minutes of posting the picture I was inundated with comments saying that it was in fact a Black Redstart a first summer male and a passage migrant. I quickly grabbed my Helm ID guide which confirmed that my fellow birders were right. It stayed for a couple more days before moving on but what a pleasant surprise the first I've seen up here and goes to show don't presume that what your looking at is what you think it is. I think I need to brush up on my ID skills.

Some more pic's of this surprising little passage migrant

My regular spring visitors the common Redstarts should be turning up anytime soon lets hope that they are as obliging as this little chap was.

THE BEAST FROM THE EAST MEETS THE STORM FROM THE SOUTH!

Quite a lot of the white stuff has come down over the last few days as the bitterly cold easterly winds met up with a storm surge coming in from the south. As the pictures below show it's going to be a while before we'll be able to get out.

our dog Jack on the only bit of track left below a 6 foot drift notice the rabbit tracks on the drift.

this is the tarmac road leading out to civilisation 

another bad drift on our road

another big drift on our track, lucky the gate was open.

Luckily for the birds I did manage to get some food out to them before the worst of the snow hit. I thought we might have had some more unusual visitors to the feeders because of the weather but the only thing of note was this single male Brambling who was feeding with the many Chaffinches.

male Brambling

Here are some of the other snowy visitors.

male chaffinch

male reed bunting

great tit

robin

female blackbird.

There were lots of pictures on the net of Redwing and Fieldfare, we've got both species up here so I thought I'd cut up the last of our fruit and put it out near my feeders in the hope that they would take the bait. No such luck though I'm afraid as it was quickly gobbled up by the Crows and Magpie's but I suppose they need to feed as well.

Here's a few more pics of some of my garden birds how such tiny creatures survive through these harsh weather conditions is a testament to how tough they must be.

coal tit

goldfinch

nuthatch

Dunnock

Can't see us getting out any time soon and as the thaw sets in it's going to take a ton of rain to shift this lot but at least I've got food and warmth unlike my avian counterparts who'll have to tough it out in these harsh wintry conditions.

Brambling braving the blizzard.

Lets hope the thaw sets in quickly.

A WINTER FINCH

After all that snow we've had I thought something unusual might turn up at my feeders but alas the same common species (although very welcome) seem to dominate the array of food put out for them with the corvids bullying every other species out of the way until they've had their fill.
We were snowed in for 4 days so the birds were eating better than us.

the pretty scene outside the house.

Not until after the snow had cleared did this little chap make an appearance.

male Brambling

First sighting this year of a Brambling happily feeding amongst the chaffinches.

Here's a couple of others that I've snapped over the last few days.

redwing

robin

great spotted woodpecker

Nice to see a Brambling lets hope a few more of these lovely winter finches show up.

THE WINTER THRUSHES ARE BACK

The Redwing and Fieldfare our two winter Thrushes are back, I managed to grab a couple of pic's of them today feeding up on the berry trees.

redwing

fieldfare

They were very skittish and I had to wait very patiently in the freezing cold for about an hour (arrrhhh) to grab these couple of images.

Also managed to grab a pic of this female Kestrel sat on a lampost on the look out for it's breakfast.

female kestrel

Nice to see our winter thrushes back on the farm and I hope to grab some better images of them over the next couple of months.

LONG TAILS

Had a small flock of long tailed tits come into the garden today. They're not frequent visitors to my patch but were a welcome addition to the usual "garden birds".

long tailed tit

Also caught this Dunnock singing in the Autumn sunshine.

dunnock

A couple of days ago I photographed this Buzzard on one of the telegraph poles also managed a pic as it took off.

buzzard on the look out

take off

Great news about the Rock Thrush up at Pwll Ddu Quarry near Blaenavon.

rock thrush

It's just a few miles from my home and although I'd have loved to have seen it I don't really do the twitching thing unless it's at a site at my local patch but well done to those who have seen it lets hope the bird survives and manages to get back to Africa. (image taken from birdguides).

WILD DUCK CHASE

A text arrived this afternoon saying that there were a pair of Goldeneye's up on Cwmtillery Lakes. I haven't seen a Goldeneye for a good many years so up there I raced camera and binoculars at the ready to twitch these new arrivals which would have been at least as far as I am aware a firsts for the lake. I could have then shared this wonderful news with the birders of Gwent.

oh dear!

And here they are, well this is one of them a Tufted Duck there wasn't even a pair two females that must have arrived at the lake this morning.

the second female tufty

I suppose they do have yellow eyes so I can see how the mistake was made, but I think an I.D guide for Christmas is a must for you Cwmtillery Lake rarity finders, mmmmm!!!!!!

There was a little bit of compensation as I watched this Dipper feeding on one of the small tributary's that run into the lake.

dipper

 I suppose at least it got me out of the house for an hour and a tufted duck is not a common bird on the lake, they must be birds passing through on migration, oh! but I would have loved to have seen them Golden-eyes.