The day of the Demoiselles

28 Thursday Jun 2018

Tags

#30DaysWild, 30 Days Wild, Beautiful Demoiselle, British damselflies, Calopteryx Virgo, damselfly, Forest Farm, Forest Farm Nature Reserve, Glamorgan Canal

I chose Forest Farm Nature Reserve for my wander on day 28 of #30DaysWild, to take advantage of the large shady trees, and I’m very glad I did because it was another scorcher. As well as the thrill of seeing my very first White-letter hairstreak butterfly (along with many other butterfly species), I was particularly delighted by the Beautiful demoiselle damselflies (Calopteryx virgo). Their iridescent colours sparkled in the dappled sunlight as they flitted back and forth along the old Glamorgan Canal. Fairies!

Beautiful Demoiselle female, showing dark brown wings and white wing spot

Beautiful Demoiselle male, showing dark blue wings and no white wing spot

Moor babies

28 Saturday Apr 2018

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature, spring

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

baby birds, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Forest Farm, Forest Farm Nature Reserve, Moorhen, Moorhen chicks

All was peaceful as my friend Jill and I sat in a hide at Forest Farm Nature Reserve earlier this week. Light rain was falling and, though we could hear bird song in the reeds and surrounding trees, the only birds we saw were the cheeky little Great tits and Robins coming to feed on seed left by previous visitors to the hide.

180427 Moorhen chicks (1)

Suddenly, a Moorhen appeared over the lip of the hillock in front of us, making a determined beeline for the front of the hide to harvest the seed that had been thrown out on the grass. The bird wasn’t at all hesitant and nervous … and then we saw why, as first one, then another little bundle of black fluff appeared over the hillock behind. We eventually counted five Moorhen chicks, and both parents emerged to help feed their ravenous youngsters. They were so delightful and entertaining to watch.

180427 Moorhen chicks (2) 180427 Moorhen chicks (3) 180427 Moorhen chicks (4) 180427 Moorhen chicks (5) 180427 Moorhen chicks (6) 180427 Moorhen chicks (7) 180427 Moorhen chicks (8)

Feathers and fungi at Forest Farm

19 Monday Mar 2018

Posted by sconzani in birds, fungi, nature, parks, walks

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

biodiversity, Blue tit, Blushing bracket, Brittle cinder, coal tit, Elfcups, Forest Farm, Forest Farm Nature Reserve, Great tit, Grey heron, Hairy curtain crust, Moorhen, nuthatch, Song thrush, wren

I’ve blogged about the charms of the Forest Farm Nature Reserve many times before but I thought I’d share some of the highlights from last week’s wander …

180319 Forest Farm

Oh, and I will just add that the combination of feathers – me mostly looking upwards – and fungi – eyes down – can be quite difficult. By the end of the day, I felt like one of those nodding dog ornaments you used to see in the rear windows of cars. Still, ’twas a lovely long meandering walk!

Mr and Mrs Sprawk

09 Saturday Dec 2017

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Accipiter nissus, bird of prey, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Forest Farm, Forest Farm Nature Reserve, Sparrowhawk

On Thursday I showed you many of the lovely birds I had seen at Forest Farm Nature Reserve the previous week but I left out two of them, the male and female Sparrowhawk I saw several times during my meanderings.

171209 sparrowhawk (3)

The Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nissus) is a bird of prey and it was easy to tell when this pair was near by as all the other birds froze, no movement, no sound. A hawker of sparrows it may be but, as Buczacki points out in Fauna Britannica, they could just as easily be called finchhawk, larkhawk or tithawk ‘because this bird really is a scourge of small feathered things’. That sounds like bad news for the smaller birds but, interestingly, the RSPB reports that ‘long term scientific studies have shown that sparrowhawks generally have no or little impact on songbird populations’. (Read more here.)

I only managed to get distant fuzzy photos (above) of the male bird, with his distinctive blue-grey back and wings, but my shots of the female are a little better. I’ve seen Sparrowhawks many times before but have not had views as close as these, and they were magnificent to watch as they flew at high speed through the thick spreading branches in the woodland by the canal.

171209 sparrowhawk (4)

Birds of Forest Farm

07 Thursday Dec 2017

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature, walks

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

birding, birdwatching, British birds, bullfinch, dunnock, Forest Farm, Forest Farm Nature Reserve, Great spotted woodpecker, Great tit, Kingfisher, long-tailed tit, Moorhen, robin, treecreeper

I had a meeting at Forest Farm last Friday so, of course, I took the opportunity while I was there to have a wander around the trails and along the Glamorganshire Canal. And it was wonderful, though I did come away feeling a little guilty. We’d had a week of low temperatures, with overnight frosts, and there was a bitterly cold wind blowing. It was obvious the wee birds were cold and hungry but I hadn’t taken any seed with me. Here are a Long-tailed tit, a male Bullfinch, a Dunnock, a Robin and a Great tit.

171207 Forest farm birds (1) 171207 Forest farm birds (2) 171207 Forest farm birds (3) 171207 Forest farm birds (4) 171207 Forest farm birds (5)

The water of the canal was sheltered from the breeze and very still, making for some stunning reflections (thank you little Moorhen). And I was treated to excellent views of a female Kingfisher, who sat for at least 15 minutes on her branch. From the way her feathers were fluffed up and she was hunched over her ‘toes’, I figure she was feeling the cold as well.

171207 Forest farm birds (8) 171207 Forest farm birds (7)

The Great spotted woodpecker was a treat, as were the Treecreepers – at least four of them, perhaps a family group, were actively scuttling up the branches in one small area by the canal. It was a grand day – my meeting went well and the birding was even better than expected!

171207 Forest farm birds (9) 171207 Forest farm birds (6)

One-two-one

11 Wednesday Oct 2017

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

birding, birdwatching, Forest Farm, Forest Farm Nature Reserve, house sparrow, sparrow

‘I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance than I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn.’ ~ Henry David Thoreau. I have not shared Thoreau’s privileged occurrence but I do enjoy watching and listening to sparrows, like these two juveniles seen recently at Forest Farm.

171011 House sparrows (1) 171011 House sparrows (2) 171011 House sparrows (3) 171011 House sparrows (4) 171011 House sparrows (5)

The Young’uns at Forest Farm

10 Sunday Sep 2017

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature, parks

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

birding, birdwatching, British birds, dunnock, Forest Farm, Forest Farm Nature Reserve, Greenfinch, Grey heron, juvenile birds, robin

I hadn’t been to Forest Farm for a while but, when I heard some rather nice fungi had been found, I was there like a shot (more on that tomorrow). And, of course, whilst there I had to spend some quality time with the lovely birds that can be seen in this beautiful nature reserve at any time of the year. Now, in early autumn, there are a lot of young birds, and they’re always fun, and hungry, and often quite confiding.

170910 Dunnock 170910 Greenfinches 170910 Robin
170910 Grey heron (1) 170910 Grey heron (2) 170910 Grey heron (3)

Watch the birdie!

01 Thursday Dec 2016

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

birding, birdwatching, British birds, coal tit, Forest Farm Nature Reserve, Kingfisher, Mallard, Moorhen, nuthatch, robin

When deciding on a title for this post, I couldn’t help but wonder where the phrase ‘Watch the birdie’ originated, and I quickly discovered that as early as 1879 Victorian portrait photographers were using trained live birds and then mechanical chirping birds to hold the attention of their subjects. (This blog has more details if you’re interested.) My intentions were a little different: I was carrying small pottles of bird seed to try to hold the birdies’ attention so I could take their photographs! However, plenty of folk had beaten me to it and the birds were already scoffing into all their food presents.

161201-forest-farm

I hadn’t been to Forest Farm for a month or two so it was lovely to wander along the towpath of the old Glamorgan Canal and the meandering woodland paths, listening to bird song all around. A highlight was watching a kingfisher trying to spot the sprats in the canal – I only saw it dive once and that was unsuccessful but it was still an absolute delight to watch. It was a truly wonderful day watching the very-much-alive birdies.

Welsh biodiversity: Forest Farm

09 Thursday Jun 2016

Posted by sconzani in animals, birds, insects, nature

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

biodiversity, birding, birdwatching, damselflies, dragonflies, Forest Farm Nature Reserve, rabbits, Wales Biodiversity Week

I’ve sung the praises of Forest Farm in previous blogs (here and here) and enjoyed many conversations with robins during my walks there but today, on day six of Wales Biodiversity Week, for the wildlife at Forest Farm it was all about procreation.

160609 forest farm (1)

Male damselflies were flashing their colourful wings trying to impress the females; male dragonflies were patrolling their territory to warn off any potential interlopers; damselflies were copulating as they flew along the canal and around the pond, and I saw two female dragonflies depositing their eggs amongst plants and reeds in the pond.

160609 forest farm (2)

The birdlife was a little more advanced – there were chicks and fledglings everywhere: ducklings, baby coots and moorhens, young robins and dunnocks, to name just a few. Perhaps cutest of all, though, were the baby rabbits, happily frolicking and nibbling on the grass near the bird hides. It was like a scene from Watership Down!

Moorhen multiplication

19 Thursday May 2016

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature, spring

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

birding, birdwatching, British birds, chicks, Forest Farm Nature Reserve, Gallinula chloropus, Moorhen

Are you ready for more cute bird babies? The Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus) chicks at Forest Farm Nature Reserve last Friday were the first I’d seen, so I just had to take lots of photos of them. They looked a lot like coot chicks to me, except perhaps with even bigger feet!

160521 moorhen chicks (2)

According to the RSPB website there are around 270,000 breeding pairs in Britain so the chances of seeing them are fairly good, especially in lowland areas. The adults build a nest on the ground, in amongst thick shrubs for protection, and lay between 5 and 8 eggs that take about three weeks to incubate, with both male and female taking turns on the nest.

The parents also share the feeding of their offspring, though the chicks are able to feed themselves after a few days, and are fully fledged 6 to 7 weeks after hatching. A few weeks after that, the chicks head off on their own and the parents will often raise a second brood. That sounds like an awful lot of moorhens in the making but, sadly, as with most birds, predators take their toll.

chick callisthenics?

If you want to know more about moorhens, I found a delightful article online here. Meantime, I hope my photos make you smile as much as I did while watching these little cuties.