The Young Birder

As we get into Autumn my local patch, Marcle Ridge, Herefordshire, really starts coming into its own being well situated and with good habitat for both observing visible diurnal migration (vismig) as well as   migrant birds which have dropped in   during their migration.  South-bound passage on the ridge starts in late July, often featuring typical early migrants such as Swift, Sand Martin and Tree Pipit, though usually in fairly low numbers.   The conditions on the morning of the 13th of August were looking good for vismig with southerly winds and a little cloud - by 07:00 around 15 Tree Pipits had flown through. Then, around 07:15,  Tree Pipits started streaming through in flocks of 5-8 birds, crossing the end of the ridge and by 08:30 I had counted a total of 110 Tree Pipits, the highest number ever recorded moving through an inland site anywhere in Britain!  For context, usual numbers moving through Marcle Ridge at this time of year is around ...

I recently spent a few days exploring the uplands of the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park, formerly known as the Brecon Beacons. Although a lot of the uplands are closely grazed and so rather poor in biodiversity, I was exploring a few small pockets of fantastic natural upland habitat.  The first main location I visited was Craig-cerrig Gleisiad NNR, a steep cliff surrounded by moorland, rising to Fan Frynych at 629m. At the summit, the surrounding landscape stretched out into a damp plateau and was absolutely packed with Cotton-grass . Difficult to properly capture in a photograph; the natural regeneration of woodland at Craig-cerrig Gleisiad was just fantastic, with birch, hawthorn and rowan sprouting up in the more sheltered areas of the main cliff, creating a superb habitat for upland passerines, such as Willow Warbler , Lesser Redpoll and Siskin .  There are also large patches of scree slope, perfect for Wheatear . Moving down the slope, the woodland turned int...

Over the past month I've been doing  work experience with Herefordshire Wildlife Trust, taking part in  a lot of ecological surveys in my home county of Herefordshire. Its been mostly botanical, although bird and invertebrate species are featured as well. One of the first sites was a woodland in the south west of the county which hadn't been managed for many years, making for a very interesting habitat. Woodland left unmanaged can sometimes turn into dense bramble and thick scrub with a lack of biodiversity. Here though, the woodland's natural management was working well; where trees had fallen, glades opened up, allowing light to penetrate through.  The ground flora was very diverse, with marsh-loving plants springing up in the wet flushes, ferns pinging out all over the place and Wild Garlic and Bluebells in with stands of Ash , whilst most of the ground flora was made up of  ancient woodland indicator species.  The predominantly Ash and Oak canopy ...

April is a really exciting month for birding as it's peak spring migration time and you never know what might turn up. The month got off to a flying start with this cracking male Ring Ouzel I found late one afternoon on North Hill, Malvern Hills, Worcestershire. It could be heading to breed in Britain or perhaps further north in Europe.  In the past, I've only really gone up to my local patch, on Marcle Ridge, Herefordshire, to do visible migration watching (vismig) - this spring however, I've been going up there regularly to see if any migrants have dropped in, having never watched the site in spring before.  This 1st-summer male Wheatear  was one of a flock of 7 Wheatear I saw up there one afternoon - the next day, the flock was nowhere to be seen; they had just stopped-off briefly for a refuel before continuing on their journey. This male has some rather distinct orangey-buff tones on the underparts and well marked facial patterning, more so than on other males. I ...