Yellowhammer - Lymore

I don't get to see these guys very often, but found a small flock of 10 feeding on the grain feed put out for the sheep.

First Chiffchaff singing

Thanks to Bill Rowell for sending in this message: "I heard a chiffchaff for the first time this year today (Saturday 27th February), in trees by the canal near Buttington Wharf. Also noted three grey herons arriving all at once at the heronry by Gungrog Hill. Three grey wagtails at Belan bottom lock on Thursday 25th. And a kingfisher on the stretch of canal below Crowther Hall Lock, Pool Quay, on Monday 22nd."

Dolydd Hafren

Its been many years since I last visited this site. Saturday27/2/21. highlights were 3 Little Egrets, 20 plus wigeon, 2 Red Legged Partridge, Numerous Goosanders ,several of which were showing courtship behaviour, 46 Curlew and a fly thro' peregrine.

Brambling

Kingfisher from river in newtown and Brambling today up at the woodland hide, also LTT without a tail, never seen this before

 

Green Woodpecker

Powis Castle Park. one possibly 2 calling 26/2/21.

Little Owl

Before the hard winter of ,I think,2010, I often used to see one perched on the hedge near an old oak tree whilst driving home to Llandyssil. Since then I've not once seen one there.  On my way home tonight about 630, I was approaching the old oak and from the top of the hedge opposite,a Little Owl took off and flew across the road in front of me. Well chuffed I was.

    

R5 Higher ISO pics for info

 Just three very quick pics this afternoon - conditions the same as yesterday, namely Canon R5, 600mm f4 ii with 1.4x extender shot wide open at f5.6. Sharpening and NR using the facilities inbuilt in Capture One - didn't bother using Topaz as I normally would.  All significant crops to around 25% of the frame and saved as a small jpeg 1024px on the long side. Yes there's noise and by the final pic it's becoming noticeable but it's still perfectly usable as a record shot - pics in order are ISO3200, 6400 and 12800, not that I ever plan to use 12800 but's it's nice to know if push comes to shove it's an option!

Recent Reports

Hawfinch, 14 Feb: 10 at Ceinws, near Machynlleth

Goosander, 16 Feb: 40 at Llandrinio with 100 Lapwing on/by floodwater 

Great Egret, 21 Feb: 6 together by Caersws floods

Merlin, 22 Feb: female at Carno Windfarm; also male Kestrel and Skylark singing

Teal, 23 Feb: 30 on floodwater at Cefn Bridge, Trewern with 2 Goosander 

Thanks to Dave Anning, Alec White, Janet Mackinnon and Barry Long for  these records.

More on the Canon R5 for bird photography

For those interested in the photography side of things, been putting the Canon R5 through its paces before the 30 day keep it or return period expires - or at least as much as I can do stuck at home.  Latest set of tests aimed at pushing the camera to a position where the images could reasonably be a bit iffy - ISO1600, 1.4x on the 600mm f4 ii, f5.6 so shot wide open with minimal depth of field where and focussing errors will become apparent.  The Siskin is obviously a significant crop, at c24% of the full image, but still plenty of pixels in there.  Bear in mind as well you're seeing here tiny jpegs with long side of 1024 pixels created from the original cRAW files - for ISO1600, which generally is as far as I need to go, I think these are pretty acceptable.

However next series of tests will be pushing the ISO to 3200 and beyond and seeing far this can be taken before IQ becomes unusable

Short eared owl

 The shorties from by Llyn Mawr seem to have now moved on, as many as 10 have been there some days, managed one last go the weekend and got really close and got the shot I wanted 

A bit bedraggled in the deluge

 Yes I know they're here simply as a result of the shooting industry, something I admit to finding difficult to understand, but they are quite smart.  Even in the downpour ...

Heronries request

 I am updating a 2014 spreadsheet of heronries in Montgomeryshire, partly because I am keen to track the colonisation of egrets in heronries. Little Egrets have successfully nested at the Welshpool heronry, and I believe that Great Egrets will attempt nesting somewhere in the county soon. At present I know of only four heronries with regular observers: Welshpool, Glansevern Hall near Berriew, Llandinam, and Bryngwyn Hall at Bwlch-y-Cibau. Birds of Montgomeryshire (Holt & Williams, 2008) also mentions heronries at Llanwrin near Machynlleth, Carno, Aberbechan and near Llansantffraid-ym-Mechain. If anyone can help with more information or observing (lockdown permitting), please leave a comment here or email me at montbird@gmail.com 

Not a Brambling Winter here, but....

 

Having seen only a handful (!) of Bramblings this winter in the garden, and ringed only 5, this handsome adult male turned up this morning. The ring is Norwegian, from the Stavanger scheme, so a real bonus. I will send off details today, and post when I have news of ringing details.

Cold weather brings birds flocking to the garden

 The bitterly cold weather yesterday brought a couple of dozen fieldfares and several redwings to the garden, as well as 20 or so starlings, all feasting on windfall apples and the berries of a large cotoneaster. By this morning, soon after dawn, every cotoneaster berry had gone, and yet they'd been hanging uneaten all winter until now! So there's been some pretty spectacular and aggressive competition on and beneath the apple tree today, where there is still plenty of fruit.

The redwings have also been foraging in fallen leaves - they're so well camouflaged (as per photo) that we would barely have known they were there were it not for the leaves being scattered in all directions. 

Not a single brambling, blackcap or greenfinch so far, and no siskins this week at all, but good numbers of goldfinch and up to 9 redpoll jostling for the niger seed.

Firecrest in Crew Green

 

Wendy Vickers has sent this photo of a rare and tiny gem, and comments, "it was taken through a snowy window so not the best image. So lovely to see one." She has also had two Blackcaps this week. Thanks Wendy - definitely worth adding to the Notable Sightings list! 

Llandinam update

Thanks to Paul Irving for this report: "since the last weekend in January we have had up to 3 Bramblings in the garden, 2 males and a female. I have now ringed 176 Siskins this winter in the garden and almost 120 Goldfinches, I've caught Siskins from Aberdeen and Peebles in Scotland and already had a Goldfinch go to Hampshire, controlled a month after ringing. Still seeing up to 2 Little Egrets and 1 Great White Egret here in Llandinam Gravels and the Herons are back at the local heronry (about 10 nests)."

Our regulars

Testing out/fine-tuning the new camera at the moment and these pair of red-legged in the garden pretty much every day provide plenty of opportunity for playing around with the settings - do a great job of hoovering up the spilt seed so keep on coming!

Garden today

Male and female Brambling on the feeders this morning together with the resident Blackcap. Whilst we are still getting Goldfinch they have reduced in numbers. Plenty of Greenfinch, Siskin and Chaffinch. All photographed through the window. I am wiping the footbars and tops of the feeders with anti bacterial wipes.Feeders are removed and replaced with clean feeders, the dirty feeders sprayed with weak bleach and left out in the rain to wash.

Lock-Down

 Really interesting to hear the differences in the garden bird records. I live about 300 yards from Brian, but only rarely get any Goldfinches, and this winter no Redpoll or Siskin. Bramblings as singletons about twice a week, but Greenfinches several times a day queuing to get on the 10-port sunflower feeder. Coal Tits are the commonest of that family. Up to 8 Blackbirds jostling for the half apples. Jay, Great Spot and Nuthatch are inconsistent visitors.

Meanwhile on the dog walk, the Heronry near the High School has been occupied since the third week of January, and a Raven has been on her nest since then as well, in a small copse. Only a very occasional sighting of Fieldfare or Redwing in single figures, but Kites and Buzzards daily.

Passing Llyn Coed-y-Dinas on the way back from my vaccine shot in Newtown, it was possible to see 2 Great Egrets and 4 Little Egrets.

Redpolls

 Unlike Mark, we are being visited by more redpolls than we've ever had, but are seeing very few siskins compared to other years -  we've only had a single male siskin all week. Apologies for the poor photo, taken through the window this morning, showing 5 of the 9 redpolls that were feeding on fallen niger seed. It's also been fun watching them feasting on the seed of Verbena bonariensis plants, which we always leave uncut for the winter

It's certainly a strange winter in more ways than one.

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Siskin - Sarn

 A good number of Siskin appeared in the garden this past couple of weeks.  No sign as yet of either Redpoll or Brambling here - normally the colder/snowy weather pushes them down off the Ridgeway but as yet no sign, is it just here or have others noticed reduced sightings?

Short Eared Owl

One from the weekend, had as many as 5 around me hunting at one time 

 

Sarn Sparrowhawk

 Our local assassin showed beautifully this morning