The Young Birder

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...