Great Grey Shrike

Glancing out of our back window on Tuesday morning, I noticed a whitish coloured bird, around the size of a thrush, perched on a fence post at the rear of Llanwrthwl village hall. White birds are generally uncommon around here (perhaps because of the danger of predation?) – so anything white is generally unusual (Gulls, Egret, Barn Owl etc). So I ran for the binoculars – and there it was – a Great Grey Shrike. These birds have a slate grey back, white front and a black face mask. It chased a bird – probably a Blue Tit, into the buddlea that grows in the community field – revealing its long tail as it did so. I’m not sure if it caught its prey, but it quickly disappeared off in the direction of the Wye, never to be seen again. These birds visit from Scandanavia for the winter and can turn up anywhere – but usually in scrub or coniferous plantations. Around 2 or 3 records occur in the county of Breconshire each winter – but its worth looking out for them anywhere in our study area.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Grey_Shrike

Latest newsletter

The latest edition of the Rhayader by nature newsletter is on its way out to members. I shall upload the events programme over the next week – but here is advanced notice of a couple of events that are happening soon – Nov 29th (Sunday) – there will be an escorted tour of Rhayader by natures bird food crop plots and a visit to a yellowhammer feeding station. (9.30-12.30).  Dec 4th (Friday) a visit to Rhydolodog House, Rhayader (2.30 – 4.30). Details will appear in the newsletter or within the event pages on this website.

Red Kites @ Gigrin

I have added a link to Gigrins Red Kite blog pages – regular updates on numbers and information about individual Kites.

If anyone has any wildlife related links they would like actually, please get in touch.

New Features

The site now has its own Flickr pages – for storing images (accessible from the picture links on the right hand side). I will upload all the groups images I have over the next few weeks. If you have any wildlife images taken in the study area (5 mile radius of Rhayader- see map on ‘About’ page) or any images of the groups activities, please email them to Rhayader by nature  (see email link in ‘Contacts’ page) or pop them to Richard on a CD/DVD. Please re-size them first as the pages have limited capacity at present.

I have also added a map, click on this and it will take you to the Platial website. We can store wildlife sites in here – which I will do over the coming weeks. You can also switch to Satellite imagery, and whizz around the area – and loose hours of your life doing so if you are anything like me….

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.