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| Male Redstart |
The Redstart is one of the trio of woodland migrants, the others being the Wood Warbler and Pied Flycatcher, that I would hope to catch up with in the Wyre forest annually in May. I’ve always found it hard to get decent views of the Redstarts at Wyre and this May was no exception with a brief flight view. For whatever reason, they seem to be somewhat more confiding in the Welsh forests so I planned a very laid back woodland birding day there on Thursday last week.
The site I normally visit is some 100 miles drive from home but the windy Welsh roads determine that this is a 180 minute drive. After a very enjoyable early morning dog walk at home I was the sole occupant of the small car park when I parked up at just before 9 am. The weather was rather overcast and chilly, a stark contrast to the heatwave conditions we had at home earlier in the week.
The male Redstart in summer plumage is a very handsome and photogenic bird. He has a slate-grey head and upperparts, except the rump and tail, which, like the flanks, underwing coverts and axillaries are orange-chestnut. The forehead is white; the sides of the face and throat are black. The two central tail feathers are dark brown, the other tail feathers bright orange red. It winters in central Africa and Arabia , south of the Sahara Desert but north of the Equator, from Senegal east to Yemen. It is widespread as a breeding bird in UK with a preference for western woodland habitat.
I had only walked perhaps 50 meters from the carpark when I saw my first Redstart, a female, feeding on the broadwalk in front of me. This really set the tone for the day with a good number of sightings of both male and female birds. Further into the woodland I came across another female with a beak full of juicy insects. I presumed she was heading off to a nest to feed her chicks but she was actually feeding very recently fledged rather clumsy and ungainly juveniles. It is often the case that juvenile birds are rather confiding, sometimes to a ridiculous extent and this was true of several of this brood. I often wonder at what point they become rightfully weary of us planet destroying humans. Perhaps the sad fact is that natural selection comes in to play and the confiding juveniles are the ones that sadly don’t make it.
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| Redstart youngster |
The problem with photographing wood birds is guess what – wood. Nine times out of ten you can guarantee that a pesky twig is slap bang between you and the bird as in this otherwise quite nice example spoiled by the twig covering over the left leg
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| Dam Twig! |
Birdsong is much reduced in late June as parental duties take priority but I did hear a brief burst of Garden Warbler song and saw it flitting about in the canopy. The Garden Warbler is a perfect example of the Hutchins inverse law of bird song – the beauty of the bird is inversely proportional to the beauty of the song, i.e dull birds have the most beautiful song. I also caught a few bursts of the characteristic Wood Warbler spinning coin song but failed to see it in the dense canopy. There were none of the usual Pied Flycatchers but the warden told me that they seem to have had a good breeding season so I guess they have dispersed. I also caught a brief couple of bursts of a call that sounded like a Hawfinch which my Merlin app also confirmed. Chatting to the ranger, this would only be the second record of Hawfinch on the site if confirmed.
I spent a little while at the end of the afternoon watching a family of recently fledged Wrens. The juveniles reminded me of a group of out of control toddlers as they flew, or almost tumbled, rather unconvincingly around the ferns with one of their parents getting very irate with lots of what seemed to be scolding song aimed at the unruly youngsters.
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| Grumpy parent wren |
Footnote – my blogs are posted with sometimes rather imaginative spelling and grammar due to my extreme dyslexia!
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