A Slice of Paradise

After an aborted trip to Connah’s Quay - cut short because of a maintenance day when rather surprisingly two members were wandering around the Ash Pool picking up litter and thus disturbing all the nesting birds – I decided to seek refuge at Garth Wood.

The heavy rain had put a dampener on most of the inhabitants, with the notable exception of a young Great Spotted Woodpecker that was manically calling from the bowels of an oak tree. After a few minutes I located the almost perfectly circular nest hole about four metres up the trunk, where sure enough peering out from the entrance was a dirty-red capped youngster.

After the parents failed to show, I moved along the path to check on the Pied Flycatchers. I had picked up a male singing about a month ago, but when Ash Cohen visited a few weeks ago it had managed to successfully pull! Sure enough, after a blank fifteen minutes, first the female, and then the male bird appeared and both were carrying food.

Clearly busy, I left the flycatchers and moved to the other side of the wood to check-out the section of stream where I had watched an adult Dipper four weeks previous. The dry section of the bank I had sat on last time was now sodden with the heavy rain, but carpeted with hundreds of glorious bluebells.

Instead of trampling over the flowers I parked my backside on a damp stump. And waited. My luck was in: after a couple of minutes, one, then two, and a little later a third Dipper – all newly fledged – appeared on a rock in the middle of the water.

Their parents were not long behind and they were soon occupied in feeding the trio of hungry mouths. I sat silently for over an hour and thought what a real privilege it was to enjoy a brief window into their lives – a much better afternoon than had I opted to twitch my umpteenth White-tailed Lapwing from hundreds of yards away through a metal fence…

Garth Wood 29.05.10

1 Great Spotted Woodpecker (juv)
2 Pied Flycatcher (pair)
5 Dipper (inc 3 juv)
1 Buzzard
1 Marsh Tit (heard only)

Until later.

Event Horizon

A handful of Little Terns, and a distant and unidentifiable Skua was all there was to amuse me whilst seawatching at the Point of Ayr this morning and I was about to pack it in when I caught site of a very large bird circling high above the wind turbines a couple of miles out to sea.

After eventually training my scope on the bird my initial impression was of a very big raptor. It was difficult due to the heat haze and the distance to make out much detail, but I watched it for a good ten minutes as it repeatedly soared, drifted and then soared again towards the Lancashire coast.

I could, however, just make out the large broad wings when the bird banked, and my general impression was of a dark silhouette of large Eagle. I quickly ruled out a large Gull due to the flight style and the lack of a protruding neck and head seemed to eliminate a Crane or a Stork, but again, the jizz of the bird didn’t seem right for these species either.

Definitely a very interesting bird, although I’m not going to get to carried away speculating on the identification of a bird from the best part of two miles away – tantalisingly close nevertheless…It will certainly be interesting if anything of this ilk is picked-up nearby by somebody else today, but as I have just gathered most eyes will be trained on a White-tailed Lapwing at Seaforth!

Point of Ayr 27.5.10

1 Eagle (sp)?
7 Little Tern
1 Guillemot
1 Skua (sp).

Until later.

Eyes Wide Shut

The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men didn’t half gang aft agley this afternoon when a plan to head over to Woolston Eyes with SS was subject to severe delay following an unplanned excursion to Leasowe for a Bluethroat.

The bird – a female I believe – was fairly confiding, nipping in, out, behind and around some Iris’ in a ditch with some regularity.

Then, however, the heavy artillery started to arrive - one bloke had a shutter so loud that I’m sure it could be employed blasting quarries in North Wales.

Next the inevitable happened and four people decided that they were just not quite close enough and decided to move much nearer to the bird by planting themselves on the opposite side of the bridge.

It is impossible to say definitively of course – and I may be being a little unfair – but after the four photographers had relocated themselves the bird didn’t show for the next half an hour I was there.

If I am ever fortunate enough to find a bird of this calibre, them I’m afraid I shall probably commit the heretical birding act of suppression and only tell people I know well and can trust.

On the up side, Stan and I did eventually manage a couple of hours at Woolston Eyes. It was my debut visit and I was mightily impressed – superb habitat with excellent viewing facilities too, including a fantastic new hide.

At least six Black-necked Grebes present, and a good a variety of wildfowl for late May including good numbers of Pochard and excellent numbers of Gadwall.

Laudably, lots of hard work, initiative, and a willingness to experiment are being deployed in an effort to create a variety of different habitats at Woolston, including some wonderful wild flower meadows and a sacrificial winter crop.

This reinforces my belief that the most dynamic and resourceful conservation organisations are the small and local ones. Free from the bureaucracy, they can formulate a plan and enact upon it much more swiftly than some of the larger conservation bodies that appear cumbersome by contrast.

Until later.

A Grizzley Discovery

The glorious sunny weather lured me out to another new site today – Wrexham Industrial Estate.

Not the first place I would look for wildlife, but a chap had suggested a brown field site opposite the Calypso factory as a good spot to find Grizzled Skipper.

When I rocked-up numerous ‘No Trespassing’ signs surrounded the margins of the site, but a look at my OS map suggested a public footpath running through it, so I adopted the commendable Indian attitude to official notices – all are to be studiously and universally ignored and if you come a cropper then it’s nobody’s fault but you own.

Strangely, the dry rough grassland and scrub reminded me a lot of rural India, although the weather may have helped a little too.

Like Shotton NR it is a haven for warblers with Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler, Blackcap, Common & Lesser Whitethroat, Garden Warbler and Sedge Warbler all present and correct.

But it was butterflies I had come to find and it was equally rich in this respect too: Wall Brown, plenty of Common Blue, many ‘Whites’, shed loads of Small Heath, Small Copper, a couple of Dingy Skipper and finally after two hours…..a Grizzled Skipper!

All in all, another first class habitat right under my bonce. I do wonder if this area has been accorded any sort of protection because I would hate the concrete and tarmac to arrive…

On a less positive note, it looks as though the Common Tern colony at Shotton NR is about to - if it has not already - fail for a second successive year. I met Denzil down there yesterday and twelve birds was the highest number we recorded.

This is after three hundred birds being present early on in the week, but unfortunately as with last year they appear to have vanished.

Until later.

Eyarth Rocks

After speaking to a chap about butterflies at IMF yesterday, I was directed to a hitherto unknown to me reserve a couple miles south of Ruthin – Eyarth Rocks.

It is gratifying to know that after five years birding and walking in North Wales that there are still some beautiful and wildlife rich areas I have not yet visited, but I think that after today I will be lucky to find one quite as good as Eyarth Rocks again.

My principal reason for visiting was to look for Pearl-bordered Fritillary, although ‘look’ is hardly the correct word – avoiding treading on would be more apt as there must have been in the region of one hundred and thirty today!

Aside from the astonishing number of butterflies, the reserve is also excellent for warblers with Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and Blackcap all present in good numbers, plus one Garden Warbler - a bird that seems to like this habitat as I have seen them at Aberduna too.

Wild flowers are abundant here and with the aid of my reference book I was actually able to correctly identify one for a change - the stunning Early Purple Orchid. A pukka one this time too – not like my Hyacinth Orchid!

For the last hour or so I had a mooch around for some other butterfly species that added Small Heath, Speckled Wood, Large & Small White, but strangely not one Peacock…

On the subject of butterflies, I found a rather dry quote from the Collins Field Guide to UK Moths and Butterflies that made me chuckle:

"Butterflies are creatures of little importance and have never played much part in international commerce, either of goods or ideas."

Eyarth Rocks 20.05.10

130 Pearl-bordered Fritillary
1 Speckled Wood
3 Small Heath
1 Garden Warbler
1 GS Woodpecker

Until later.