Tag Archives: Cosmeston

A slimy Monday

27 Tuesday Nov 2018

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Cosmeston was relatively quiet yesterday. A few Redwings flashed their rusty flanks at me, indignant that I had interrupted their grazing in the west paddock, and a pair of Mistle thrushes screeched their football-rattle call from the tree tops as the Redwings flew up to join them. Carrion crows and Grey squirrels hovered on the periphery, watching as I fed seed to a posse of passerines in Cogan Wood, but the hoped-for Marsh tit did not appear. So, I abandoned the birds, headed up and along the muddy woodland tracks where few people venture, eyes down and searching for fungi. Within minutes, my hand was scratched from reaching too carelessly through brambles, my fingers were filthy from picking up rotting wood to examine more closely, my camera was speckled with dirt from being plonked on the ground for better close-ups, but my reward was this most wonderful slime mould. I don’t know its name but I am a huge admirer of these enigmatic organisms, and this one was a beauty!

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Hen harrier!

20 Tuesday Nov 2018

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‘It flies so low that sometimes it seems to be stirring the grass, its long legs trailing through the heather like a keel. A slow tacking flight: float then flap.’ This description of a Hen harrier’s flight pattern is from the library book I’m currently reading, Raptor: A journey through birds by James Macdonald Lockhart (4th Estate, London, 2016) and, by sheer coincidence, I watched a Hen harrier fly just like this yesterday.

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I was at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, walking along the central hedgerow in the west paddock, on the lookout for winter thrushes, and had just walked down into a dip in the field when, with a loud whooshing sound, a large bird flew almost over my head.

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I immediately turned and looked up, swung up the camera and clicked as many times as I could before the hedgerow blocked my view. Walking quickly up out of the dip, I watched the bird, pursued by a couple of Carrion crows, dodge eastwards, then veer back west and head down over the west lake reed beds and on towards the coast.

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But what was it? It seemed quite large but I didn’t think it was a Buzzard. There had been a Sparrowhawk harassing the smaller birds a couple of days previously, but the flight didn’t seem right for that – not the flap, flap, glide that Sprawks are known for. This bird had been flying very low and relatively slowly.

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I had been out walking for about 5 hours by this time and was getting cold, so decided to head home. Hot cuppa in hand, I grabbed by trusty RSPB Handbook of British Birds, transferred my photos on to my laptop and opened up Photoshop. As the day had been gloomy, the shots all needed lightening and heavy cropping to get a better look at the bird. When I consulted my handbook, I found a bird that matched but couldn’t believe it was right. Luckily, my birding friend John was online so I flicked him a message with four photos … and waited.

Yay! He confirmed the match, a Hen harrier (Circus cyaneus), from its colouring either a female or a juvenile – it certainly looks exactly like the juvenile image in my book. This is quite a rare bird locally so I was absolutely over the moon to have seen this beauty.

Saxicola rubicola

16 Tuesday Oct 2018

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Very few scientific species names roll off the tongue – most are more inclined to be tongue twisters – but the Stonechat has a name I find much easier to say and remember. Saxicola means rock dweller (from the Latin saxum, meaning ‘rock’, and cola from incola, meaning ‘dwelling in’) and rubicola means bramble dweller, so we have a small bird that lives amongst rocks and brambles.

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In fact, most of the Stonechats I see seem to prefer tall shrubs or hedgerows or wildflowers: at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, where there have been good numbers of Stonechats in recent weeks, some perch on the tallest branches in the hedges, and many seem to prefer sitting atop and hunting for insects beneath the tall umbellifer flower-heads that grow in the northern end of the west paddock.

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This time last year, that paddock was mowed and I assume that mowing will be scheduled to happen again soon, so I’ve been making an effort to see this year’s Stonechats as often as I can before they get forced to move elsewhere.

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I found a new plant!

03 Wednesday Oct 2018

Posted by in flowers, nature, wildflowers

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In case you think I’ve made a profoundly important botanical discovery, perhaps I should clarify that title: although I have noticed this plant growing in one particular place at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park during my walks in the past couple of weeks, Monday was the first time I had a close look at it, took some photos and worked out what it was, and it is a plant I had not previously seen.

This is Blue fleabane (Erigeron acris), a member of the daisy family, though why it is called Blue fleabane I have no idea as the flower petals I’ve seen are pink, and both my plant ID guidebook and the various online sites I’ve looked at describe them as lilac or purplish.

This is a coastal plant, which usually grows in dry areas of grassland, on sand dunes or on stone walls. That fits with the site at Cosmeston, where it’s growing in a very dry, stony location and it’s probably only a mile to the sea as the crow flies. As you can see from the fluffy seed heads in my photos, it’s actually at the end of its flowering period – usually between July and September – so I have been very remiss in not noticing it before now.

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Blooming autumn

28 Friday Sep 2018

Posted by in autumn, flowers, nature, wildflowers

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Last week we had our first two named autumn storms, this week we’ve had glorious clear days but rather chilly overnight temperatures, so I think it’s fair to say autumn has well and truly arrived. Amazingly, though, wildflowers are still blooming in large numbers. Here are the species I’ve found during my walks around Cosmeston Lakes Country Park this week.

 

A Whinchat family

08 Saturday Sep 2018

Posted by in autumn, birds, nature

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One of the highlights of this week at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park has been watching the party of three Whinchats that have stopped off to feed up prior to their migration to central and southern Africa. I think they’re a family group because this one appears still to have the plumage of a juvenile.

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Another (below) is still part way through the moulting process. I read recently that birds don’t usually migrate until after their moult is complete, as the lack of all their proper flight feathers, in particular, can affect their ability to fly long distances. Perhaps that’s another reason why they’ve broken their journey at Cosmeston.

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This is the third Whinchat, or Saxicola rubetra, to give it its scientific name.

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Their common name, as with many birds, reflects their behaviour – whin is another word for gorse, as these little birds are commonly found amongst gorse and bracken and areas of low shrubs and bushes. Chat relates to their call, which combines the sound of two stones being tapped together with a series of melodic whistles.

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I got a Gropper!

06 Thursday Sep 2018

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Non-birders will be wondering what on earth my title is about; birders, on the other hand, will immediately recognise the name and understand the reason for my excitement. Gropper is birder shorthand for Grasshopper warbler (Locustella naevia) and this is one difficult bird to photograph, except perhaps in the springtime, when it pops up a little more often to advertise itself to potential mates. Although Groppers are present in many parts of Britain, it’s usually their grasshopper-chirping-like song (called reeling) that lets you know one’s about.

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I was alerted to this bird’s presence by my birding friend Graham, who got a photo the previous day, and he’d also seen migrating birds in this general location, one of the outer fields at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, so I figured it was worth a look.

I found this particular bird and stood still watching it for so long that a grasshopper (the insect, not the bird) started climbing up the inside of my trouser leg, which, sadly, didn’t end well for the grasshopper as I freaked slightly about what it might be. And, to be completely honest, not having seen a Gropper up close before, I actually thought the bird I was watching was an immature Reed warbler. It was only when I sent Graham a photo later that he confirmed its identity. I might just have to go back and see if I can find it again.

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More migrants passing through

01 Saturday Sep 2018

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My local country park, Cosmeston Lakes, has been awash with migrating birds this past week. And it’s not just me getting better at finding them – according to birders who’ve been checking the area much longer than I’ve lived nearby, this has been a bumper year for sightings.

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On 24 August I found two Redstarts, a male and another that may have been a female or an immature bird that hadn’t yet developed its full adult colouration.

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Also on the 24th I had a very fleeting view of a Wheatear that popped up from grass to fencepost, then was off in the blink of an eye.

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On the 27th my birding friend Della texted me to say she’d found a Whinchat. That was the fastest I’d ever walked to Cosmeston and, luckily, the bird waited for me – and, in fact, stayed around most of the week so I saw it several times.

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During my frequent visits to Cossie this week, I’ve seen ones and twos of Whitethroat and Chiffchaff, and tens of Willow warblers. These are the ones I spotted on the 30th.

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Also on 30 August, I spotted another Redstart and, from the dark head colours, I could tell this one was definitely a male.

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The week ended with a bang! My birding friend, Graham, let me know that he’d seen a Pied flycatcher with a small group of Spotted flycatchers, a most unusual visitor. Luckily, I was on the coastal path heading homeward so was able to divert towards Cosmeston and, with Graham’s help, got distant views of this beautiful little bird catching flies along the tree line. What a stunning week it has been!

Seeing spots before my eyes

27 Monday Aug 2018

Posted by in autumn, birds, nature, seasons

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The autumn bird migration is now in full swing in south Wales and almost every day migrating birds are being spotted at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, where they’re stopping off to refuel before they tackle their long flights to warmer over-wintering locations in Europe and Africa. One that I find particularly charming is the Spotted flycatcher (Muscicapa striata), which is not really spotted at all, more streaky and stripy. The scientific name is more accurate: Muscicapa is a combination of the Latin word musca, meaning fly, and capere, meaning to catch, and the epithet striata is from the Latin striatus, meaning striated.

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I saw my first Spotted flycatcher at Cossie on 7 August.

A week later, on the 15th, I had two sightings.

The 20th was a bumper day, with three birds, two obviously travelling together, and another doing its own thing.

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And last Friday, the 24th, a birding friend put me on to a single bird, that was catching flies in the paddock I walked through on my way home. Fingers crossed I manage to see a few more before they all disappear for the winter.