Our Halcyon River

Spring presented itself at its finest for at least a few days this week. The sun was not just shining but it also filled the air with plenty of warmth allowing us to venture out without our jackets. On Tuesday we walked around the sessile oak woodlands by Devil's Bridge, followed by a visit to the Hafod Estate - a combination of an active conifer plantation, broadleaved woodlands and open landscaped gardens originally designed in the 19th century.

Both places were filled with singing and displaying migrants typical for these habitats in mid-Wales: Pied flycatcher, redstart, tree pipit, willow warbler and chiffchaff. But the star of the show was a delightful male wood warbler near Devil's Bridge, singing its little heart out and quivering all over throughout the last tunes of his song.



As great as it is to get these birds out in the field, its even better to be able to see them close to home. On my regular check-ups on the dippers a few days ago I discovered a singing male redstart in the open oak woodland by the river Dulas. Although I have not spotted a female, I hope there is one around - with a few nestboxes in the area they will hopefully decide to stay. This was topped by a pair of pied flycatchers Dave spotted yesterday just beyond the metal bridge crossing the Dulas when we wandered down to the Dyfi. Apart from ubiquitous sand martins and swallows flying up and down the river not much else braved the wind.
So today when I popped down to see the dippers again I got in the following order: a pied flycatcher pair, the dipper pair (they seem to be on eggs now, the presumed female appeared briefly today to stretch her legs) , a white wagtail, a cracking male grey wagtail, a fly-by kingfisher and a male redstart. Not too shabby for a lunch time stroll just beyond our cabin. I will definitely visit our local migrants regularly over the next few weeks as they delight me so much. I just hope I won't forget there is an exam waiting for me at the end of the month....

 

   

 

Noteworthy from the garden is an ever-increasing number of redpoll. Our highest count of birds present at the same time is now 14. Where were they all winter...?? And as I am writing this post, Dave spotted garden tick number 81 in the shape of two linnets feeding in the field.