Edgelands and boundary features

In 1973 Richard Mabey labelled it the Unofficial Countryside. Today geographers refer to the land between urban and rural as the edgelands. Edgelands are where you're more likely to travel to work or shop, its where the municipal recycling centre is and leisure facilities are located. Here too ruderal plant communities of both native and non-native species alike jostle for a toe-hold eagerly exploring the vacuum exposed by  frequent land use changes. Its the industrial estate car park that's supports a black redstart, the roof where gulls breed  and scan the area for discarded fast food or the landscaping that produce the berries for wintering waxwing.

Yesterday's spring morning visit to the landscape around Blaenavon was a visit to an edgeland now championed as having global significance. This edgeland is a cultural landscape, despoiled by the utilitarian priorities of the industrial revolution but now rich in biological diversity.  Negotiating the track between a couple of small horse paddocks a pair of stonechat announced my arrival in characteristic style moving from fence post to stunted hawthorn to remnant drystone wall and back to fence post. Onward between  some large partly vegetated coal spoil tips I was able to locate up to three wheatear against the audible backdrop of fly past meadow pipit and the many displaying skylark.

Edgelands are an undervalued and unexplored resource. For some naturalists who view open agricultural landscapes with hedgerows ( if you're lucky) as the true countryside, urban edgelands are hostile no go areas not for the purist.

Movements of a Canada goose



You will have noticed by now that I've tried to add a bit of value to my birding. On days when all that's on offer is usual mixed bag of common birds I've turned my attention to ring reading. With the spectacular increase in the distribution of Canada goose in Gwent coupled with the annual goose ringing round up at Llangorse Lake there's a fair chance a bird carrying a ring will turn up on ones patch.

Back in 2010 a bird did in fact turn up at Cwmbran Boating Lake carrying ring number 5257656. A phone call to Jerry Lewis and email to BTO was enough to determine it was in fact ringed as a first year bird at Llangorse Lake in 2009. Since 2010 I recorded the bird intermittently during 2011 and early 2012 at the Boating Lake. Yesterday whilst going about my weekend duties - before the game - I dropped in to Llantarnam Ponds whereby 5257656 appears to have paired up with an un-ringed bird. Whilst this is just a local movement it illustrates that Llangorse birds are moving into Gwent to fill vacant niches.

Elsewhere yesterday I picked up my first chiffchaff in song close to my home and a colony of about 15 pair of lesser black backed gull and 5 pair of herring gull on an industrial unit at Ty Coch, Cwmbran is worth a check for ringed birds in the not too distant future.

Up on the roof - the follow up.

On opening my front door this sunny Sunday morning I caught sight of a hummingbird hawk moth as is flew powerfully by, only to alight on an hyacinth in full flower window box glory. It promises to be a good year for this moth and all your sightings should be uploaded onto the the Butterfly Conservation website - mine is! 

Onward to Brynmawr in an effort to track down that colour ringed lesser black backed gull on factory roof. Approaching the town centre I was greeted by a six strong team of Community Payback 'volunteers'  busily de-mossing a blockstone roundabout. Manual labour and a lecture on the fruiting bodies of rare urban bryophytes in the context of compliance with the NERC duty - that should teach the lads they'll think twice before re- offending now.

Back to the gulls and I wasn't able to set eyes on the target bird so had a quick round robin of the nearby lakes. Nothing much to report but the usual assemblage of pre breeding wildfowl.

Up on the roof

In amongst a mixed gathering of around 100  herring and lesser black backed gull on the roof of an industrial building close to ASDA Brynmawr was this colour ringed LBBG. But before I could organise myself to get a better pic they all took flight northwards never to return, suggesting the birds are roosting on some of the larger waterbodies in southern Brecknockshire.

Ring readers update - The Severn Estuary Gull Group

In days of old, before email, there was snail mail and getting information on ringing recoveries from the BTO was a somewhat lengthy progress. Today however things are thankfully different. On the weekend I got round to reporting the two colour ringed herring gull recorded at Bryn Bach Parc earlier this month via a link on the BTO website. I was more than impressed therefore to receive, within a couple of days, all relevant ringing/sighting information from Peter Stewart of The Severn Estuary Gull Group. Here's a summary:

1) Colour Ring: Blue MDB. Metal Ring: GR06391. Born: 2010. Ringed: Gloucester Landfill Site (SO8318). Date: 12/02/11.

Multiple encounter history at Gloucester Landfill Site until 11/08/11. Relocated at Grundons Landfill Site, Gloucester (SO9328) on 26/11/05. Then Bryn Bach Parc, Gwent on 12/02/2012.

2) Colour Ring: Blue 099: Metal Ring: GN84195. Born: 2004. Ringed: Gloucester Landfill Site (SO8318):  Date: 26/11/05.

Two subsequent sightings at Gloucester Landfill Site in 2006 no further records until Bryn Bach Parc, Gwent on 05/02/2012.

Peter was kind enough to provide me with the most recent (2010) bulletin of The Severn Estuary Gull Group  which is a very interesting read, if, like me, you've developed a liking for gulls. Amazingly Peter deals with around 15,000 colour ringed gull reports per year just for the Severn Estuary Gull Group alone.  

Ten minutes or so

The last time I visited Tredegar House Lake I left flat and underwhelmed. But just as the appearance of a yankee warbler proves, things turn up anyplace, anytime. So motivated by a report of a drake smew I persuaded my wife that 'calling in'  for 10 minutes en route shopping was hardly a sacrifice.

First up was a small raft of black headed gull containing, eh, blacked headed gulls. A subsequent count of wildfowl was mildly pleasing with 20+ coot, 10 moorhen, three little grebe, two mute swan, two tufted duck and three statuesque cormorant. By now I was over my allotted time and very wet so back to the car it was but not before another quick check of the gull raft that had markedly increased. This time an adult winter Mediterranean gull popped in to my field of vision. Ten minutes or so of satisfying birding - I left overwhelmed.

Another tale of birding woe

On a day that produced a common yellowthroat, female smew, further news of the Slavonian grebe and the just out of county Dowlais Top Caspian gull the best I could do was a distant ringed Canada goose at Green pool LR. In fairness there were some other interesting reservoir snippets such as a couple of flyover skylark, a rather loud water rail,  male and female goldeneye and good numbers of reed bunting. At times like this I tend to re-emphasise the value of the commonplace - but that's only because I don't see much of the rare these days.

Whatever happened to Swoop?

On a bit of a round trip to various watering holes before finishing off at DSP for the goosander survey I called in to Pen y fan Pond where a makeshift feeding station had been set up in the car park. Smashing views were had of bullies, waggies, reedies and various titties as they fed on seed, fatballs and bread. This also got me reminiscing about bird feeding days long gone. In a time before seed was available on an agricultural scale there was Swoop. Swoop was wildbird food in a small cardboard box similar in size the budgerigar equivalent Trill. I remember Swoop affectionately as I used my pocket money to purchase 25p boxes from the local pet shop, and the RSPB's Birds magazine always set aside its back cover for a full page Swoop advertisement featuring Bill Oddie with long hair and a bobble hat.

On to Cwmtillery Lake and pulling into the car park along side two closely parked Corsas and Ford something or other I was greeted by the heady smell of burning cannabis  Pleasingly over 50% of the water surface was unfrozen restricting wildfowl to the open area where three little grebe were the pick of the bunch.

 

By the time I got to Bryn Bach Park It was mid afternoon but despite far too many people for my liking several hundred gulls were loafing on the ice. Rings were difficult to pick out but at least four were marked as follows:

1 x Black headed gull c/w metal ring on left leg

1 x adult Herring gull c/w metal ring on left leg

1x immature Herring gull c/w metal ring on right leg

1 x immature Herring gull c/w metal ring on right leg and black colour ring on left leg marked MBD in yellow.

The goosander count at DSP produced a nil return but 'stumpy' the amputee coot was still hopping around.

Ice is nice

A prolonged period of below zero temperatures is just the ticket for picking out those colour ringed gulls on icy water bodies. Yesterday Bryn Bach Park was completely frozen with a group of around 200 mainly herring and black headed gulls along with a handful of lesser black-backed all standing on the nice  glistening surface. Having earlier checked the gulls on ice at Dunlop Semtex Pond and on the roof of a nearby factory without even a sniff of a colour ring I was prepared for a similar outcome at the park. Much to my satisfaction there were a number on show. The herring gull tally was as follows:

2 x adult c/w colour ring on left leg, metal ring on right.

1 x immature c/w metal ring on right leg.

1x  adult c/w metal ring on left leg.

Needless to say I was unable to read any of the inscriptions save the above.

Some contrasting head gear

It's at this time of year that black headed gull's start to display the tell tale signs of summer plumage. Within the Cwmbran Boating Lake gull flock were examples of both winter and summer plumage with some half way between thrown in for good measure. For any student of gull spotting there's few better places at the moment to get to grips with the myriad of ages and plumages that typify gull identification.

Gwylan y Gweunydd

A couple of common gull were in amongst an increasing  flock of gulls at Cwmbran Boating Lake. The gathering is now well over 100 black headed gull with the odd lesser black backed and herring gull. Five goosander augmented the usual wildfowl and dipper on the nearby Afon Llwyd made a nice change.

Heath snail ?

According to National Biodiversity Network the heath snail (Helicella itala) isn't  present in the vice county of Monmouthshire. A specialist of limestone grassland I felt this mollusc was a good bet for the  quarries that pock mark the eastern margin of the south Wales coalfield from the Clydath to Pontypool.

The shallow quarry at Cwm Lasgarn near Abersychan with its limestone spoil was the venue for today's naturalist excursion. The snail wasn't difficult find, turn a few stones and there is was numerous and widespread. All specimens collected were dead and somewhat bleached with others coated in brown soil.

Bird wise, siskin and lesser redpoll were plentiful in the larch plantation that encircle the quarry. Three flypast fieldfare was the only other noteworthy record.

Today at the lake

After yesterdays stunning Iceland gull pic from the Llandegfedd Reservoir gull roost I decided to have another go at Cwmbran Boating Lake. Now as you know I'm a big advocate of local patching its the glue that holds together targeted conservation action. Just three quarters of an hour around the lake was enough to blow the office cobwebs away and record some interesting common or garden water birds.

Gulls were performing well. First up was a ringed black headed gull from within a group of around 80 birds. Secondly a single lesser black backed gull was the first site record for a number of months and was joined by a herring gull that soon took off after an altercation with the aforementioned. Finally the now long staying Mediterranean gull was still loafing about on the floating island.

Iceland Gull

Got to Pettingale Point in good time to watch the gull roost build up. It was only at around 4.30 did I pick out the ghostly figure of a single adult Iceland gull from within the roost.  Spot the birdy in the following photo.



Gong for a naturalist

Having spoken to Trevor Evans within the last fortnight his modesty didn't allow him to let on he'd recently received an MBE - thanks to Chris Hatch for the information. As County Botanical Recorder for as long as I can remember Trevor's lifelong quest for recording all things flowery in vc35 culminated in the weighty tome that is the Flora of Monmouthshire. Everyone interested in the wildlife of Gwent should have a copy!

I remember my first correspondence with Trevor it was a type written letter with a list of plants recorded locally. I had, of course, made a school boy error in assuming the common English name for plants would be sufficient. Trevor's response was courteous but at the same time ticked me off for not using latin and to this day all conversations with him are punctuated with latin species names that send me scrabbling for a field guide to translate.I also had the pleasure of spending some time with him and Colin Titcombe in the field. One such excursion took us to a large field above Forgeside near Blaenavon. An interesting wet flush was visible towards the middle of the field but with no public access there was no way of reaching it, I thought. This didn't stop Trevor, up and over the fence he went without a care in the world spending a good twenty minutes on his hands and knees recording and compiling a list. Oh, and one other thing, although he lives in Chepstow he's never shyed away from botanising in western Gwent! You couldn't meet a nicer , more knowledgeable or determined field botanist. An award so richly deserved.

Gwent Goosander Survey: Visit 3

Visit 3 of the Gwent Goosander Survey at Dunlop Semtex Pond produced little to shout home about. There were no goosander present but four ringed mute swan showed well, at least two of which were ringed by Luke Phillips at Bryn Bach Park a couple of years ago. Full count:

18 Tufted Duck

1 Pochard

42 Mallard

8 Moorhen

1 Wigeon

22 Coot

4 Mute Swan

Earlier at Bryn Bach Park a very pale grey lag goose entertained the hordes of visiting Sunday afternoon strollers.

'Twas in a woodland clearing

With over three weeks leave at my disposal I took the opportunity to chalk off a few this week. A hair appointment for the household Team Leader in the bustling mid Gwent town of Usk allowed me to grab a couple of hours in nearby Wentwood.

First stop was Little Oaks where the ravages of post war tree planting was being corrected and stacked in neat orderly piles. The now regular Great Grey Shrike was quickly and easily found, here too was a constant traffic of overhead Redpoll and Crossbill all to the background of calling Coal Tit.

Onto Stalag 17 known locally as Wentwood Reservoir. Walking from picnic area toward reservoir with a hope of finding a vantage point to scan for wildfowl proved fruitless. More warning signage, trip wires and mine fields. The road above the reservoir provided the best opportunity to count birds although for safety reasons I felt the need to slip on my old NCB florescent jacket.

I'm mildly impressed by the number of wildfowl using this reservoir at the moment. Smashing counts of diving duck and Canada goose were augmented by Coot, Wigeon, at least three Gadwall, a Little Grebe, Cormorant and Great Crested Grebe and so on, I just wish I could get bloody closer! 

At risk of being tedious

I know its a bit tedious to have yet more images of the now infamous Cwmbran Boating Lake Mediterranean gull but I just can't help it. But this is nothing compared to the real tedium of the number of short eared owl images on the South Wales Birding blog, that's overkill! 

The bird today was spending most of its time picking at a dead fish on one of the floating islands - note the fish scales on its bill.  A passer by was taken a back by my gull attention complaining that they spoilt the lake but soon walked off when I expressed my affection for 'seagulls'.

Also on the lake was a single male goosander, two moorhen, a single coot, a pair of mute swan, 16 Canada goose  and many mallard and black headed gull.

Short eared owls

At least four short eared owl showed well at Waun afon bog late this afternoon. Also came across an unseasonal fox moth caterpillar -a measure of just how mild the weather is at the moment..

Odd one out

The first winter Mediterranean Gull was still present at Cwmbran Boating Lake this lunchtime along with a single Great Black Backed Gull, 4 Canada Goose, 19 Goosander and a Cormorant.

Also came across several dead Bream ( I think) most of which had their heads removed. Is this the predatory work of an Otter?

A delightful find to end the year

In the words of John Muir 'going out is going in' so I had high hopes for the end of year break, lots of getting out with some nice birds to be found, none of which really happened. However as you will probably already know there's a tradition amongst naturalists-birders for having at their disposable a variety  of books to pore over on a rainy day or after a successful field trip. I'm no different, as a bibliophile I have a collection of books with an axis on field guides. So imagine my glee when during a visit to the Festival Park shopping centre in Ebbw Vale on New Years eve I found a brand new copy of the Collins Field Guide Birds of the Palearctic:Non-Passerines, for the princely sum of 99p. Safely bagged and with a hour or so before last vestige of light faded for the last time in 2011 I drove home elated at my bargain purchase. But a 2011 swansong was still to had. Driving from Brynmawr towards Blaenavon good views of a Short-eared Owl were obtained as it flew adjacent to the road and the SEO hotspot of Waunafon Bog. What a day, a field guide and a nice bird, I'm easily pleased!

New Years Day signalled the start of a new field note book. Every biological recorder needs one and has one, leaving home without one engenders anxiety. A bright crispy new note book awaiting its defacement with illegible handwriting, frequent crossings out and grubby fingerprints. But a new note book deserved to be populated as soon as possible so a tour de force of Gwent valley wetlands was planned and executed. Starting at Peny fan Pond and ending in Garn Lakes Local Nature Reserve I took in eight sites in the hope of a Great Northern Diver or colour ringed Herring Gull. It turned out that a game of noughts and crosses would have been a more fitting entry in the note book as little was on offer to trouble page one. Apart from just small numbers of the usual commoner wildfowl two Wigeon at Beaufort Ponds was the only other bird worthy of a mention. What let down!

Squealing piglets

In contrast to my recent access rant getting into Llandegfedd Reservoir yesterday was a breeze. Water levels were high with a stiff wind creating choppy conditions which made for difficult birding. Respite was found in Greenpool bay where teal, mute swan, little grebe and others found shelter. Here too was a single male pintail. Water rail were in fine voice with up to four birds calling loudly from within a metre of the Greenpool hide. Excellent views can be obtained by viewing the alder and willow carr through the two right hand observation flaps and just waiting patiently.