Birding in Powys

I was recently in Radnorshire, Powys, hoping to catch a glimpse of some spring migrants. Radnorshire has some beautiful and amazing habitats - from ancient woodland, moorland, rivers, heathland, meadows and also Celtic rainforest; so rare, it is considered to be even more threatened than tropical rainforest.

My first location was the Elan Valley Celtic Rainforest which supports over 200 species of lichen and plant species and also a wide variety of birds. One of these birds is the beautiful Pied Flycatcher(Ficedula hypoleuca) which nest in the large number of nest box's that the Elan Valley Trust provide for them.

Walking up the steep wooded sloops of the valley I heard the calls of Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff, 2 other spring migrants who arrived earlier this month. After walking for only a few minutes I saw my first ever Pied Flycatcher flitting around in a low shrub. I was so pleased when I saw there were also 2 more darting in and out of the tree canopy. 

This male (above) flew down onto a rowan tree very close to me and started singing. 

Whilst I sat and waited, at a conveniently placed bench, for them to fly down to the lower branches, I noticed that a female had some nesting material in her beak. After watching her for a while, she went into a nest box close by! 

Just as she was about to go in to the nest box again this male pushed her off the hole and just perched there for a while, not doing anything - even though these birds are beautiful, they are pretty feisty little things! They seem to be very territorial and I saw the same male chasing off a younger male.

Pied Flycatchers are polygamous which means that some males defend more than one territory and attract a female to each. They don't however help the second female to raise her young, who is consequently much less successful at raising her brood. 

Pied Flycatcher's are slightly smaller than a House Sparrow and are migratory. In mid April they leave their wintering grounds in West Africa and travel the 3000 miles to get to the wooded slopes of Radnorshire and other areas where there is wet woodland. Quite a phenomenal journey for something no bigger than a House Sparrow. 

There were 20,000 UK breeding pairs last year, which may sound a lot, though compared to the Blue Tits 3,700,000 breeding pairs, shows they are still quite a rare bird! 

Until 2 years ago, the Pied Flycatchers were on the Red List, meaning that they were threatened with global extinction, breeding numbers had declined by at least half in the last 25 years and they had a severe population decline since 1800. Now, they are on the amber list, which means their breeding numbers have increased a small amount. One reason why this has happened is that organisations like Radnorshire Wildlife Trust, the Elan Valley Trust and the RSPB have been putting up lots of nest boxes and improving habitat.

The next day I was up early to visit Gilfach Nature Reserve (Radnorshire Wildlife Trust) just a few minutes drive away from the Elan Valley. I've visited Gilfach before and it is a truly beautiful reserve, with rocky hillsides, ancient woodland, meadows with the River Marteg running right through it.

After walking for a few hours I saw yet more Pied Flycatchers, Dippers, Grey Wagtails and Peregrine Falcon. Though when I saw my first ever Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus) perched on a post by the track I was on, I was absolutely amazed! 

Looking closely through my binoculars I saw how beautiful his plumage was.

Redstarts are a member of the Chat family and are on the amber list, meaning that they are classed as threatened with extinction in Europe and their UK breeding range has decreased by 25% - 50% in the last 25 years among other things. There are only 100,000 breeding pairs of Redstarts in the UK, whereas in the 1990's, there would have been 200,000.

 As I continued my walk, another male Redstart flew in to the top of some sort of conifer, singing as it went. A fantastic sight to end my trip to Mid-Wales!