Yellow Peril

A walk around the foothills of the Scouse Alps from the village of Cilcain went completely to plan (for a change), with all three target species for my Flintshire list present and an unexpected surprise too!

Whilst you are not exactly going to be beating off Hen Harriers with sticks on the well trodden Clwydians, this little walk can nonetheless be productive for upland passerines.

My main reason for visiting is because it now seems to be one of a handful of reliable spots in Flintshire for the declining Yellowhammer. Two birds present today – one on either side of the valley and both singing with alacrity.

Worryingly, they are the first two birds I have seen anywhere this year; concerns have been raised about the decline in the numbers of Stonechat, but to me the plight of the Yellowhammer is more alarming.

Not so the Wheatear, that along with the Common Whitethroat appear to be cropping up in good numbers absolutely all over the show this spring – the Sylvia warbler more so. Four pairs of Wheatears this morning and three Whitethroats too singing from the heather scrub.

If there are few things in life that are as reliable as a Volkswagen, then finding a Cuckoo near the fishing pool at Clicain is one of them! Every year they are here without exception and today a male was giving it some beans from a nearby hawthorn bush.

A cracking male Redstart completed my hat-trick of hope for species and I was more than happy with my few hours work, until a few hundred yards further up the bridleway I heard the unmistakable drumming of a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker!!

The bird was in a small copse of mature deciduous trees that unfortunately lay in the middle of some farmers’ fields, so not wanting to be on the wrong end of a Shotgun I listened from the path for a good twenty minutes before it eventually stopped – superb!

Cilcain 26.4.10

Yellowhammer 2
Cuckoo 1
Redstart 1
Tree Pipit 2
Raven 2
Whitethroat 3
Wheatear 8
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker 1