Iolo Williams Lecture – Radnorshire Wildlife Trust

Barnes Lecture – Iolo Williams  “Bird Wonders of Wales”

at Hotel Metropole, Llandrindod Wells

Thursday 26th November, 7.30pm

Tickets £10 non-members   £5 RWT members 

Children & Full-time Students are free but a ticket must be obtained.

Tickets are sold on a first come first serve basis, so buy an advance to avoid disappointment!  Tickets can be bought from the offices / shop at Warwick House.  Offices are open Monday – Friday.  The shop is open Tuesday and Friday 10am – 1pm.  Or you can ring the office on 01597 823298 to buy tickets.

Blackcap

A male Blackcap in a garden in Llanwrthwl the other day. First time Ive seen one in winter in this cold inland area – more common in the south of the county over winter. Has anyone else seen any locally over the winter?

Black Redstart @ Llanwrthwl

ABlack redstart has turned up on the church roof today – also catches flies from the roof of the stone house opposite the entrance. A mini invasion lately on the coast – but this is a scarce migrant in inland Powys. Having said that we have had 5 birds in the village in the last 8 years – they seem to like it here. Also a huge number of filedfare and Redwing have been streaming through all day (1000s).

Redwing

Numbers of Redwing are building steadily at the moment – last night I could here them flying over at 12.30am. Most of these presumably just pass through, but some stick around. A good place to watch any Thrush sp. at the moment are the coniferous plantations as the sun sets and they come in to roost. Caerhyddwen, Nantglas is one place. Another roost is in Cae Garw plantation, Llanwrthwl – down the Hodrid Lane – but you can view Thrush of all makes arriving after 4.30pm, watching from the cattlegrid at Penrhos. Ring Ouzels are less common but can be found associating with these other Thrush, particularly on Rowan berries. The valley and area running up to the Claerwen dam, as well as the Elan visitor centre car park and surrounding slopes are the best places to look over the next two weeks.

Common Lizard @ Gilfach

From the Blakeways – nice picture of a pair of Common Lizards enjoying the sun at Gilfach in early  August.

Common Lizard - Photo Rachel Blakeway

Dippers getting broody

The Dipper that lives on the Dulas at Llanwrthwl starting singing on Sunday. When most other birds are thinking about staying alive over winter, the male Dipper is already thinking about next years breeding. A post on the Brecknock bird blog noted that Dippers on the Usk also started getting territorial at the weekend. Our Dipper, presumably the male, will soon start to display, flying and singing high over the village, making a circuit back to his nest site, usually at dusk between November and January. Dippers are almost always seen flying a few inches above a fast flowing stream, so to see one at 50ft over land is unusual. They are not bad little fliers at height, but their loud singing makes them vulnerable. A Peregrine study group in south Wales noted that amongst the prey found at nest sites in recent years, were 7 Dippers. My observations of our local Dippers seems to have shed light on how Dippers fall prey to Peregrine. It would be interesting to hear if anyone else has ever seen Dippers displaying – if not, look out for them over the winter as the song is pretty and very welcome when all else is silent.

Otter Jelly

There was some debate about the origins of ‘Otter Jelly’ amongst the RXN members on the old yahoo website last winter. the consensus seemed to be that it was the jelly from a female frog or toad, that goes to make up frogspawn. When a frog is predated before she manages to spawn, the predator, usually a Heron, eats the frog and leaves the jelly scattered about the ground. (thats the theory). Whilst out walking in Nantglas at the weekend I found some  ‘Otter Jelly’ , with clumps of tiny black eggs nearby. Suprised that frogs have eggs/jelly so early, but then what I know about the biology of a frog……

Late dragonflies

In the sun at Caerhyddwen wood, Nantglas on Sunday there were a couple of late Southern Hawker dragonflies. Also a Red admiral butterfly. Yesterday a Painted Lady visited the garden.

Sparrowhawk

At sunset last night a Sparrowhawk tried to catch a day-flying bat over the garden. Never seen this before. It was unsuccessful!

National Moth Night at Great Vaynor.

From Bronwen Jenkins – the national moth night at Great Vaynor farm was a great success, with 27 species (148 moths) found on saturday morning in the traps (set out by Richard the night before). These included Garden Rose Tortrix (5), Small Phoenix, Red-green Carpet (4),  Common Marbled Carpet  (44), Green Carpet, July Highflyer  (2), Brimstone  (2),  Canary-shouldered Thorn  (8),  Dusky Thorn, Flame Shoulder , Large Yellow Underwing (4), Lesser Yellow Underwing (5), Lesser Broad-bordered Y U-wing    (3), Autumnal Rustic (2), Setaceous Hebrew Character, Black Rustic  (2),  Merveille du Jour, Pink-barred Sallow  (8), Sallow (4), Dark Arches (2), Small Wainscot (8), Flounced Rustic (2),  Rosy Rustic (5), Frosted Orange,  Bullrush Wainscot (9), Silver Y  (1), Snout (2).

Brimstone

Autumnal Rustic

Canary Shouldered Thorn

Frosted Orange

Merveille du Jour

Pink-barred Sallow