Buzzard bonanza

Seems boring compared to the rest of the days excitement, but this morning I saw about 20 Buzzards in Mathrafal field! When I first looked over, I thought they were Rooks, but when I realised they were Buzzards, I was quite shocked. I've seen half a dozen at a time in these fields, but never this many!

Whoopers

16 Whoopers this evening near the A489, per Mark W's blog below.

Waxwing @ Welshpool

At least 184 showing well opposite the entrance to the flash this afternoon. There could well have been more as they were feeding on several different bushes. This is the biggest flock I've seen and quite possibly the biggest recorded in Montgomeryshire? Well worth a look tomorrow if they are still around.

Waxwing Update and Pwll Penarth

80+ at the coolege at first light today but they flew off about 8.45 later in the afternoon 15 were about and showing well but light was not great.

Pwll Penarth had 8 Snipe today and the Water Rail was active and showing well but light there was terrible.

 



Balcony Species

Just had bird species number 18 land on my home balcony - a superb `Mistle Thrush` Going to get some `bought` mistletoe as the berries are one of there favoured foods, may by able lure it to a `photo shoot` when I tie said mistletoe to my apple tree.
I have only had one Great Tit on my feeders this week, I wonder if this new strain of `avian pox` is taking a hold?. There are some dreadful images on the net of  Great Tit with the wart type growths on them.

Commercial Berry Pickers

Sorry to put a downer on the party but I would like to make everyone aware of berry pickers operating in our area. Yesterday staff at Coleg Powys informed me that a group of people, apparently from Sweden, asked if they could pick the berries in the car park i.e the ones waxwing and other bird species are currently subsisting on. One member of staff also told me they had seen a couple of people "strip a tree of its berries" on Treowen estate on Weds night. It is thought the berries are for use in commercial cultivation.

Hopefully this is just a one off, however I have informed MWT this morning and Tammy has done an excellent job informing their staff and the council to be vigilant, just in case. Likewise, Please can you all keep an eye out for people picking berries on a large scale, especially this weekend when colleges, business estates etc are quiet.

Waxwing Paintings

Two of my paintings from a couple of fantastic days with waxies yesterday and Weds at the College.

Other places I have seen waxwing in Newtown this week: Mill close nr Mcdonalds (still one sorbus left further up hill by zebra crossing), Garth-owen estate and around high school, The Shuttle pub car park and Lidl's.

Waxwings

LLANIDLOES. Waxwings (80) in trees at the back of Llani Leisure, by the Spar 9-00am today.

Waxwing - from John Evans

Quick record shot of Waxwing on the ground from John Evans - next to The Flying Shuttle in Newtown

Record Shot

My good wife took this this afternoon about 2.30 from the bedroom window and then phoned me at work to rub it in they were outside the house again when I was not there.

103 by my count but hard to tell when they are all bunched up like this.

Thought It was quite a good record shot though.

 

Nice to see alot of people about today and plenty of Waxwings even if the light was terrible by the time I had found them.

 

Coal Tit

Treated my Coal Tit to an early christmas present this morning. Had about an hour of reasonable light and he/she duly posed for me. Still a very flighty bird though, it was only insitue a few seconds.

Waxwing @ Newtown

At least 50 fly catching around Mac Donald's car park this morning. There could have easily been over 100, but they were very mobile and always splitting into small groups! Another 2 were seen near Morrison's.

Skiving Waxwings - Coleg Powys

Feel smug if you stayed in bed this morning.....waxwings were conspicuous by their absence at the college  between 0800 and 1300 before the rain set in. All except for a flyby of around 30 early on and one bird which popped up to oblige a group from Montgomery (your reputation remains intact Mark!). Vaynor estate was quiet too. Hopefully better things tomorrow.... 

Waxwing Food Supply

This is a bit of a `random` blog, but I will share it anyway. I had to go to the x - ray dep`t at the Royal
Shrewsbury Ozzie on Friday, looking out of the corridor window I saw a quadrangle that had both acacia and rowan laden with untouched ripe berries - for info only - lol.
I commented yesterday on `tweeting`, I have never done it myself but curiosity got the better of me. I entered `bird watching` in the search area and was pleasantly suprised with the result. There is a lot of current bird news available plus one site marked @waxwinguk that would be ideal for anyone whose work et`c takes them OoC, also a good site on current `Hawfinch` sightings as well as BTO and rare breeds seen recently (No subscriptions) Hope this will interest someone.
Regards to all.

Brambling @ Dolydd Hafren

Just want to commend everyone who have been posting the fantastic photographs of the Waxwings, keep them coming!

Fancying some fresh air, I popped down to DH during my lunch break.  Spotted this Brambling amongst the branches; she was kind enough to remain perched while I found a clear line of sight to get  picture.  Even the Greylag looked good in the sun.

More Newtown Waxwings

As well as the birds seen at the college today, I also observed a handful near the fire station, 25+ near Mac Donalds, at least 1 fly catching along Canal road and 66 on Glandulas drive. No doubt most if not all are part of the ever growing flock at the college, but well in excess of 100 Waxwings in Newtown today!!

Welshpool Waxwing

Report of c.20 Waxwings seen in Flash/High School car park area yesterday (21/11) at 3:30pm. Not had the chance to find them myself yet.

Whooper Swan @ Caersws

8 today, including a family of 5 (I don't recall there being any juvs last year?). Other birds of note included 13 Snipe, 1 Water Rail, 6 Wigeon, 15 Teal and a Peregrine.

Waxwing @ Newtown

At least 40 still feeding by the college.

Jack Snipe @ Welshpool

3 this morning at the flash with 8 common snipe, also 9 Waxwings in the car park.

Waxwing update

2pm this afternoon about 60 waxwing were visible from my front door only had the camera with the 400mm lens to hand and this photo shows 25. Purely a record shot but they are growing in numbers, The Rowan tree in the college is still untouched for those who are hoping for better weather and a chance to see them.

 

Waxwing again

Still working through images taken yesterday and came across this which is not a great shot I know but shows the Waxwing chasing a fly which I thought was quite interesting as Brian and myself were talking about them taking flies whilst waiting for them to come in

 

MORE WAXWINGS

Two lots of flyover Waxwing Mid-day today at Carno (20+) in each group. Other birds of note included Thrushes (200+) Fieldfare with (10%) Redwing. Also on the move were Starling (75+) and Blackbird (30+). In the fields Chaffinch (15+) and Goldfinch (10).

Waxwings in Monts 18/11/12

As many (if not all) of you know, Waxwings are once again gracing us with thier presence this winter, and thier numbers look as if they will increase over the coming weeks/months (should the berry crop hold out?). So far in Monts they have been seen at:

Newtown College
30+ (several obs) feeding on berries on and around the college, plus another 40+ (via Phil) seen flying over.

Welshpool
31(via birdguides) by The Flash Leisure Centre at c.SJ224075 mid-afternoon.

Dolydd Hafren
Flock (via Edward) seen flying south towards Newtown.

No doubt there are several other flocks around, it's just a matter of finding them. Other places worth checking out are Tregynon, Llanfyllin, Montgomery, Pwll Penarth, Garthmyl, Llanidloes, Castle Caereinion, Pool Quay and Llanermynech as they have all had previous sitings of Waxwings over the years, or just anywhere where there are berries!

If anyone does find some Waxwings and wants to put the news on the blog but cant, please don't hesitate to contact me, and I'll try my best ot put the news out.

Happy Birding

Paul Leafe
Montgomeryshire County Bird Recorder

My Waxwing contribution

Nice to see you this afternoon Phil.

More Waxwing, Just For Completeness!

One of the better shots of the day.

I popped down to Dolydd Hafren in the afternoon to check on the Harris Hawk.  If it is indeed hunting, I'm impressed, as the attached bell is audible from the first hide.

Pwll Penarth

My trip to Pwll Penarth was well worth it Kingfisher was fishing for 20 minutes and Water Rail was showing well. Sorry Mark.

 

 

Back at the College everyone had gone as the clouds moved in but the Waxwings came in 30+ in the tree waiting to come down and 40+ flying over head at the same time. they came down to the Rowan tree briefly but ended up on the other side of the car park on the Rowan tree there, Was nice to see everyone.

Jay at the College

Was at the College at first light today a single jay showed briefly and a grab shot is all I managed.

 

 

8 Bullfinch (3 Male 5 Female) were showing well but the light was terrible.

 

Waxwings came in briefly seemed to be a bit unsure of the surroundings and were very flighty,

just record shots as they are all heavily cropped.

At least 20 flew over so numbers are picking up.

The Search For Waxwing Ends With A Harris Hawk...

Popped down to Coleg Powys this afternoon hoping to find some Waxwing.  Sadly we did not find any, plenty of Thrushes around and  lovely pair of Bullfinch on the Rowan tree.

Heading home, the light was good, so a quick visit to Dolydd Hafren was in order.  Not the most exciting bird in the world, but the setting sun illuminated this Pheasant.

Driving from the car park, I spotted a dark looking bird of prey perched low in the trees.  Expecting it to fly the closer I got, it remained still.  When it took flight, not more than 6 feet from me, it was clear this bird was once captive (had jesses, rope, and bell attached).  I phoned the falconry centre for advice.  The Harris Hawk has been seen before and is apparently hunting, although no one has come forward to claim it.

Woodcock near Llanerfyl

3 out of 4 trapped and ringed last night. All of them were birds born earlier in the year, as is the norm for this time of year - adult birds tend to turn up a month or so later.

Waxwings

Half a dozen at Newtown College today

Volunteer for MWT

Following recent comments on the blog, I would like to invite you all to become volunteers for MWT. This would give access to our work party schedule and give you a chance to raise any perceived issues in advance rather than after any work is carried out. Better still, join the work parties and get involved hands on.

Contact me as below or check our website for more information.

Bob WiIliams

Volunteer Coordinator

Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust / Ymddiriedolaeth Natur Maldwyn

42 Broad Street

Welshpool

Powys

SY21 7RR

Charity No. / Rhif Elusen 512390

Company No. / Rhif Cwmni 161224

Tel: 01938 555654

Email: Bob@montwt.co.uk

Web: www.montwt.co.uk

Magpie !!!

The lovely colours of autumn in Manafon. There is a magpie in the image to justify this publication - lol.

Pwll Penarth - Reserve Management

There was some debate over the weekend on this blog re the work that had been carried out at Pwll Penarth - the work party was there again today and I had the opportunity of discussing this at some length with Rob Haigh from MWT.

Clearly any habitat such as this needs management and it is this work the Trust and volunteer work party have been carrying out.  In the short term it may look as though habitats have been destroyed but this is not the case and without this work the reserve would not be in a suitable condition for wildlife through the next 12 months.  The particular issues around this reserve centre on the invasive reeds and willow - essentially these are 'early colonisers' whose sole intention is to populate open water, without proper management the open water would disappear and we'd be left with a swamp.  Having seen the guys wading around the pool I'm surprised how shallow much of it is and it would therefore take little time for the open water to disappear.

The work on the islands has simply removed the scrub that's built up over the last year and, with one small but significant difference, is the same as work in previous years.  The difference this year is that patches of cover have been intentionally left - building on the discussions with the Trust over a similar approach at LCyD.  This year of course has been universally wet and hence the vegetation has grown more than normal - in particular willow scrub clear-felled in February has fully regenerated and needs to be cleared again, a pretty repetitive and thankless task.

In the post below I did question whether it would be possible to turn a couple of the islands into gravel banks for Little Ringed Plover - Rob confirmed that this was done 3 years ago by the Environment Agency who removed all the vegetation, laid a membrane and covered this with gravel.  Given that this has now disappeared under vegetation again this is perhaps an approach that won't work so I'm happy to stand corrected!

Finally we discussed the reeds/rushes in front of the first hide - this is now well established (though it is only 2 years since it was fully cleared) and given that the Water Rail clearly love this environment, providing us all with opportunities to see these secretive birds, it seems sensible to me to leave this for the time being.

I hope this helps but if you have any further constructive comments I'm sure Tammy and/or Rob <UPDATE - officer responsible is Clive Faulkner> at the Trust would be happy to discuss these with you in detail.

My Welsh Garden

OK perhaps not a big thing for `local bloggers`, but as a life long townie it was great to see this beauty behind my `Manafon` shed - lol.

Not so shy Water Rail

Started the day by checking for Waxwings on the Rowan tree but only Blue Tit making the most of them so went to Pwll Penarth again.

 

 

Glad I did as the Water Rail was more than happy swimming and walking around just under the Sandmartin bank.

 

 

Never seen a Water Rail so happy in the open before even the sound of the camera was not spooking it.

 

There are now 6 Snipe visible.

 

From Pwll Penarth to Dolydd Hafren 2 Peregrine and a Sparrow Hawk kept all the small birds hidden but did manage to get a few shots of the Long Tailed Tit.

 

Finally went up to Marks to see if I could get the Sparrow Hawk and Great Spotted Woodpecker, Set the hide up and with in 5 minutes the sparrow hawk made its first appearance of 3 which produced no photos, Woodpecker showed briefly and missed that too.

The Coal Tit was my main focus then as they just don't keep still but got a few shots so just got to sift through them and hope there are some good ones in there.

 

 

Sadly not at home and so have edited these photo on a very slow laptop that does not have Lightroom

An afternoon at Penarth

Despite good intentions, the Water rail remained elusive, but with the sun shining on a crisp autumn day, perhaps it was a day to enjoy our more visible species.