Birds

November has seen some nice observations. Teal were seen on the lake with 5 pintail, 1 goldeneye, 2 wigeon, 12 common scoter, 2 little grebe and 1 red-breasted merganser. The dipper and the kingfisher were also seen several times in the lagoons. A chiffchaff was heard singing as late as the 1^st November. A few woodcock were also seen in several places, with 2 snipe also seen on the 5^th November. The largest flock…

An October summary by one of our Interns Christelle.

Reserve Management

October has been marked by the end of the control of invasive plants such as Himalayan balsam, Japanese knotweed and Himalayan knotweed.  Overall, the conservation team spent almost two full months pulling these non-native weeds. This battle was won but the war is not over yet as it will take several years of pulling to get rid of them for good.

The end of September saw the end of my third 6-month summer spell at Lake Vyrnwy. Each summer I have kept a list of birds I have seen on the reserve. For the last couple of years I have managed a total of 107 bird species each summer, with highlights being Surf Scoter, Great White Egret and Firecrest.

Drake Surf Scoter on Lake Vyrnwy in July 2013 (Photo by Gavin Chambers)

So this summer I have been hoping to beat…

The last week has been a very busy one for the farm staff on the RSPB farm culminating in the sale of 1600 Ewes and Lambs on Friday. All livestock are farmed organically and consists of mainly Welsh Mountain and a small number of Speckled Face Sheep, which are used to graze the uplands around the reserve.

Sale in full swing (Photo by Gavin Chambers)

The auctioneers, Morris Marshall & Pool of Welshpool, come to the…

It has been noticeable in the last few weeks that Swallows and House Martins have been gathering in large numbers around the lake as they consider their long migration south. The largest flock has generally been around 300, predominantly House Martin, feeding around the Llechwedd-du picnic area. A warm sunny morning of 6^th September had a flock of up to 100 birds sunbathing on a slate roof in the village, giving good…

It is that time of year when birds start to move, those that joined us to breed in the summer are now heading back south for the winter and those that headed north to breed and starting to head back. There are also birds that generally disperse, especially juveniles, in all directions and could turn up anywhere.

Here at Lake Vyrnwy our location is not ideal for attracting these migraters as the majority will use the…

Overall, this week has been fairly mundane with a couple of rainy days working in the office and the rest of the week removing invasive non-native plants (see Plant of the Week below).

However, on a sunny Wednesday morning a few of us got the opportunity to join the Wales Reserve Ecologist, Gareth Fisher, for a bit of Welsh Clearwing moth surveying. We surveyed known clearwing areas to see if any were emerging and to…

Though we a situated in the heartland of the Red Dragon, it has been the Blue Dragons that have been most prominent these last couple of weeks. The soaring temperature, reaching around 25°C, gave dragonflies and butterflies the chance to warm up and emerge from their nymphs and chrysalises.

So one sunny afternoon I decided to get the weekly Butterfly Transect done which, with the temperature at 23°C, promised great…

Recently we have had reason to celebrate and think to the future, as RSPB Cymru and Severn Trent Water have come to an agreement which sees the RSPB take on a long term Farm Business Tenancy lease of Tŷ-Llwyd farm. Full story can be read HERE.

View from Yellow Trail looking over Dam towards Ty Llwyd Farm (Photo by Gavin Chambers)

The agreement will give us more control of how the farm is run which, while working…

Birds

Despite the poor season for nest box breeding birds the woods are still alive with the sound of newly fledged birds. Tit families, high pitch squeaking Goldcrest chicks and Warblers have been quite noticeable. A few warbler nests that have been monitored appear to suggest that food has not been as much of a problem for them, however given they are ground nesters they are very vulnerable to being predated which…

In the last blog it was mentioned that Tit species had struggled to raise broods and that Pied Flycatchers were just hatching with a heatwave forecast later in the week. Well we got a mini heatwave but night temperatures were still getting close to freezing during clear nights. Also, before the heatwave, we had an absolute deluge of rain and strong winds generally over the night of the 1^st June and into the 2^nd. A camera…

It is that time of year when the majority of breeding birds on the reserve are busy hunting for food to feed their newly hatched chicks. As with all wildlife there is a food chain, with the big predators at the top and the unfortunate smaller species at the bottom. Over the moorlands it is the Hen Harrier and Merlin that sit at the top of the chain with their usual preference of prey being Meadow Pipit, Skylark and any…

This week there has been a few odd goings on. They have not been particularly rare occurrences but unusually for one reason or another. Probably the strangest find was an unusual singing Willow Warbler along the Yellow Trail. Generally it was singing like a typical Willow Warbler, but occasionally it would suddenly throw in a bit of ‘chiff-chaff’ song though quicker than a typical Chiffchaff. So why is it doing this?…

In the last couple of weeks our local ringer and volunteer has been out checking the ‘large’ nest boxes around the reserve. These large boxes are basically designed for the larger bird species like ducks and owls. At Lake Vyrnwy the usual species found in these boxes are Goosander, Stock Dove and Tawny Owl.

Typical ‘large’ nest box with Stock Dove in entrance (Photo by Gavin Chambers)

The location…

It has been quite a quiet week mainly due to the weather which has now become very wet as well as cold. The lake has certainly been topped up and is again overtopping the dam. However bank holiday Monday was a nice day and there was plenty to see around the reserve on my day off. A walk along the first section of the Red Trail (a lot of forestry work at the moment) produced singing Garden Warbler, Whitethroat, Tree P…

This week has seen a significant drop in temperature with snow, hail and freezing overnight temperatures experienced. Having had a mostly warm April a lot of wildlife will have been prompted to start breeding, so this sudden cold snap could cause them problems. Eggs could get chilled, adults may struggle to find insects for newly hatched chicks and fledged birds may struggle to keep warm through the night. The cold…

Depending on your location certain birds that are considered nationally common could be classed as locally rare. The lack of certain species is usually down to the lack of suitable habitat, whether for breeding in the summer or feeding during the winter, and geographical location, coastal or far inland. Here at Lake Vyrnwy there is a good mix of habitat but our location restricts certain species, especially coastal birds…

Migrants continued to arrive this week. Our first Pied Flycatcher was a male along the Yellow trail on the 13^th, with the first Ring Ouzel (female along the Dinas Mawddwy road) and House Martin (over moors) seen on the same day. The first Cuckoo was heard early morning on the 16^th during a Black Grouse survey along with the first few Whinchat. With an influx of Willow Warblers on the 17^th came the first Blackcaps in full…

From late March the summer migrants start to arrive back at Lake Vyrnwy, often a little later than the surrounding area given its altitude. The first migrant to arrive was the Chiffchaff during the last week in March and can now be heard all around the lake and a Redstart was reported just off the reserve in early April. A Tree Pipit was heard calling at the top of the Blue trail on the 5^th April and the first Swallo…

This week there has been a concerted effort to remove some of the non-native invasive species that are unfortunately found on the reserve. Given the location of these we have had the chance to get to areas of the reserve not often explored. Along the River Vyrnwy the sound of Kingfisher and Dipper were a regular occurrence, with a Tawny Owl also being flushed from the woodland.

With so much Hazel in the area being covered…

The majority of land managed by the RSPB at Lake Vyrnwy is run as an Organic Farm by the RSPB Farm team. This week saw the 76^th Annual Sheep Sale take place at the farm on Friday. In the past 3 weeks the farmers have had a hectic time rounding up the sheep from the moors and selecting those for the sale, along with setting up the shed with a little help from a few willing volunteers. The auctioneers, Morris Marshall &…

Adam has now migrated to RSPB Ynys-hir, along with fellow intern Tom, to start their second half of the internship. A huge thanks goes to both of them for their hard work throughout the last 6 months. With regards this blog, thanks has to go to Adam for his fantastically informative weekly posts which is going to be hard to continue to such a standard! Both interns got stuck right in to reserve work from monitoring on…

Hi,

In what is to be my final instalment of the sightings blog before migrating down to RSPB Ynys-Hir to continue my internship, I would like to take the opportunity to say a big thankyou to the staff and volunteers who have been a fantastic group to work with during the past six months. Lake Vyrnwy really is a great place for wildlife with mine and fellow intern Tom’s reserve bird list finishing on 107 species and over…

Hi,

A day foraging Otter below the dam was one of headline sightings from this period. The other was of three Redshank at the top end of the lake (Lakeside Hide, 23rd), the birds adding a bit of spice to Lake Vyrnwy’s autumn wader passage which up to then had consisted of two Oystercatchers.

An Otter showed superbly well below the dam (Many Thanks to Gavin Chambers for the photos).

The lake played host to…

Hi,

Highlight of the week was a superb Clouded Yellow butterfly seen flying around Llanwddyn (3^rd), this migrant species arrives into the UK from southern Europe in variable numbers every year and is not a common sight in Montgomeryshire. In fact the whole week turned out to be rather good for butterflies with Purple Hairstreak spotted in the Hotel Wood and the weekly transect producing 57x Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell…