Birding the ancient woodlands of Wales and a bit closer to home

 

Pied Flycatcher

With the spring passage now in full swing, I’ve managed to get out birding four times in the past week. I’ve had a day out in the mid wales ancient oak woodlands, two trips to Grimley and one to the very local Clifton lakes.

 

Last Wednesday I set off bright and early on my semi-annual trip to the woodlands of central Wales. Last year this trip was a lockdown pipe dream so its now two years since my last visit. My chosen location in central Wales is quite remote which, I must confess, is really where the attraction lies. I’ve had whole days out there in the past when I haven’t seen a single soul. I find the peace and tranquillity of  nature and its solitude intensely therapeutic, perhaps I was a hermit in a previous life!  The subjects of my birding desires in said woodland were three woodland summer migrants, namely Pied Flycatcher, Redstart and Wood Warbler.

 

On arrival there seemed to be Willow Warblers signing their simple but none the less quite enchanting song from every bush and tree. There is a boardwalk that goes through the wood and in the past I have found that picking a spot where the birds are active and then sitting low and still on the boardwalk to be a very effective way of watching and photographing the birds at comparatively close quarters. I’m quite happy to sit like this for several hours making a conscious effort to let my mind go blank while immersing myself in nature. I picked a spot this time where I had seen several male Pied Flycatchers active and also where there were a few promising, i.e photogenic, potential perches. It was almost impossible to perform an accurate count of the Pied Flycatchers as they came and went through the trees but I would guesstimate upwards of ten very smart males. The males typically arrive a week or so before the females and were already checking out the nest box accommodation. It was quite a cold morning with a penetrating wind which I guess reduced the amount of flying insects. The Flycatchers were hence actively feeding on the ground, something I don’t recall seeing before. After an hour or so of watching the Flycatchers one perched up quite close on one of my hoped for perches and I rattled off a few shots. He then flew up onto an even closer perch, inspected me for a short while and then returned to his brethren feeding on the ground. I hence rather self-satisfyingly ended up with probably the best pictures I have managed so far of these black and white beauties.

 

Pied Flycatcher

There was also a lot of activity amongst the Redstarts but I did not managed to get a natural looking photo that I was happy with. They were mostly perching up on the fence as per this snap. 

 

Redstart

Still you can’t expect everything in one day so here’s a more natural shot taken in the same location two years ago! 

One I took earlier!

After 3 hours or so of sitting down I dragged my somewhat sore and wet rear end back to the car for coffee and sandwiches.

 

I spent most of the subsequent afternoon looking in vain for Dippers on the river and Wood Warblers in the forest. I realised afterwards that I was a week or so earlier than my previous visits and I guess the Wood Warblers were not yet in, a fact later confirmed by my birding buddy Nick who said that they he had found they don’t really arrive at this location until the first week of May. I have the Wrye forest local to me which holds a good population of Wood Warblers and so I will try for them again there soon.

 

My two visits to Grimley were very enjoyable and yielded a few new for the year birds. The series of naturalised gravel pits and separating causeways provides a very pleasing to the eye birding backdrop. The location is well birded with sightings regualrly posted on twitter during the day. The number of Reed Warblers has exploded in the past week or so with seemly every possibly reed patch now occupied by a male bashing out there very distinctive song. A local birder put me on my first Swift of the year on Friday and upon checking my records at home I discovered that this was in fact my earliest Swift record! I’ve met a number of very friendly local birders at Grimley who have given me lots of very useful info on both this and other birding sites close to my new Worcester home.

 

One site that came up repeatedly both in these discussions and on Twitter was Clifton Pits. I was astounded and somewhat embarrassed to realise on checking my maps when I got home that this site was only four miles from our new home! Quite why it has taken me 6 months to discover this I’m really not sure! There were regular reports of upwards of fifty Yellow Wagtails in a single flock feeding amongst the horses including a Channel Wagtail hybrid. With a Whimbrel also reported there on Sunday I made a long overdue first visit. It took me eight minutes in the car to get to the site just behind the small village of Clifton. I parked up where there were a few other cars and after a short walk I was looking at two quite substantial lakes which I presume were originally gravel pits. It was clearly a very “birdy” site with a few other birders present and good numbers of birds including Shell Duck, Egyptian geese, Oystercatcher, Redshank and a single female Wheatear. Here is an interesting factoid  which may even be true–  Wheatear used to be called White Ass but the prudish Victorians renamed them Wheatear – a total misnomer as they actually eat insects’. I soon found the Yellow Wagtail flock in amongst the grazing horses. There was a fairly tightly knit flock of 46 birds feeding around the horses in their usual manner. Thus was certainly the largest single flock of Yellow Wagtails I have ever seen and provide quite a birding spectacle. I scanned the flock with my scope but could not see the channel hybrid.  After a while I left the Wagtails in search of the Whimbrel and eventually located it quite distant on the far shore of the largest lake associating with a Bar-tailed Godwit.  A very promising and on my door step site which I most certainly will be revisiting!

Reed Warbler and Yellow Wagtail at Grimley

Footnote – my blogs are posted with sometimes rather imaginative spelling and grammar due to my extreme dyslexia!