Where have my Siskins gone?

A quiet day today.  I refilled all my feeders and spent a few minutes watching what was coming to feed.  Really good numbers of Blue Tits accompanied by plenty of Great and Coal Tits.  Also Marsh and Willow Tit still coming with Nuthatches, Chaffinches and a single Greenfinch.

The most noticeable absence from recent years is absolutely no Siskins.  A spanking new feeder full to the brim with niger seed is still untouched after almost a month.  I have heard a few Siskins go over but amazingly none have come to feed.  Has there been a disastrous breeding season?  Is there an abundance of natural food?  Where are they?

We have been privileged to get a minimum of 20 birds at a time feeding throughout the winter and often local breeders bringing their young to the feeders in late summer.

I do hope this is only a blip because these attractive birds have brought us so much pleasure and indeed our house sign includes a male Siskin on a rowan tree.

Gorgeous Morning Walk

After a day indoors at a conference I woke to find the sun shining and so took a half an hour drive up to Mynydd Llanllwni a fairly big  area of open moorland backing on to the Brechfa Forest.  It was magnificent with perfect light and no wind.

You always expect to see raptors here and I was not disappointed.  The usual Buzzards were sitting on telegraph poles as I approached the moor and it was not long before I picked up a Red Kite being mobbed by a male Kestrel,  The latter is now a very scarce bird in Carmarthenshire away from the coast.  Ravens were very vocal and I soon counted 12 of these great crows and a flock of 30 Fieldfares flew "chucking" overhead.

After a fairly short walk in a very wet bog I moved on and as I parked the car by my next walk a juvenile female Merlin was sitting on a post quite close.  As I got out it soon disappeared across the heather.  Walking on again a flock of 6 Golden Plover flew over their fluty calls attracting my attention.  Soon the reason for their flight came into view.  A magnificent Peregrine beating its way high over the moorland.

A wonderful walk with some great birds all in just two hours.

Then it was back home in time to watch Cardiff City v Swansea City on TV.

Welsh Ornithological Society Conference

As Chairman of WOS I have spent the day at Carno, Powys helping to run our Annual Conference.  Today's theme was Wetlands Birds in Wales.  Almost 100 delegates turned up and we enjoyed a number of presentations on habitat creation and on some of the key species of wetlands in Wales.

The day was kicked off by WOS President Iolo Williams with a round up of key breeding successes in Wales in 2010.  The biggest shock of his piece was the announcement that a pair of Subalpine Warblers had built a nest on Bardsey Island. Iolo was unable to confirm whether they had nested successfully.  This would be amazing - two vagrants of opposite sex turning up in suitable habitat. What are the chances of that?

All in all another successful day and many new members for WOS.

Looking at Birdguides this evening I note that some Conference goers finished off the day well with Whooper Swans on the way home

Lidl trying to get off the bottom.

I occasionally sit on the panel of Home Planet BBC Radio 4's Environmental Question Time.  Last Tuesday I led the discussion on Waxwings and their irruptions to the UK.  This year is already looking to be very good with large numbers near Aberdeen and hordes further south on the east coast,  and some even reaching North Wales and Ireland.

Apart from suburban gardens I mentioned how supermarket and shopping centre car parks were often the best places to see these birds because of their love of cotoneaster and rowan berries.

I also referred to an amusing league table drawn up by my good friend Julian Hughes assessing which supermarket car parks were the most likely to be fruitful in a search for these wonderful birds.  It appears that Morrisons's is way out in front with giants Tesco and Sainsburys lagging behind.  Lidl was firmly planted at the bottom of the league suggesting little vegetation on their properties.

But do not give up hope you Lidl shoppers because thanks to Norfolk wildlife photographer Roger Tidman I have just heard of 100 Waxwings in a Lidl car park at Great Yarmouth in Norfolk.  Maybe this will lift them off the bottom of the table.

Birds Britannia

Last week I was staying with author and BBC Natural History Producer Stephen Moss and he reminded me to tune in to BBC 4 this week and catch his new series Birds Britannia. This deals with the complex relationship between human beings and birds over time.

What a splendid and very different programme on birds. Looking back at the Victorians' attitude to birds was very interesting and what happened to the Dicky Bird Club?  It seemed to be thriving then encouraging and committing children to look after birds and provide them with food.  Remember there were not the specialist bird food producers in those days and it meant using left overs from their own meals.  I am keen to know what happened to this happy band.  Did they merge with RSPCA which was about then or just disappear?

The programme also revealed the extent of bird feeding today and how people begin to see the birds in their garden are "their property" and dangerously divide species into the ones they like,  - usually Robins, Tits & Blckbirds and those they do not - Sparrowhawks, Magpies and Starlings.

Other highlights of the programme included the reminder of what great books were produced years ago with special emphasis on the Robin, and David Lacks wonderful Life of a Robin just as relevant today as when he wrote it just before The Second World War.

A number of distinguished ornithologists and other academics contribute sound bites of great interest to link the contents together.

How refreshing to have a programme that does not treat all those interested in birds as "Twitchers" and deals with all the aspects that make us all so enthusiastic about all species.

I cannot wait for the next programme.

Wildlife friendly farmers

(Picture shows Brian & Patrick Barker with TV's Jimmy Doherty after receiving their FWAG Silver Lapwing award)

It was heart warming to hear my young friend Patrick Barker this morning on Farming Today.  He was explaining how the devotion of him and his family to farming alongside good habitats and valuable wildlife still achieved a profitable farm, but with all the biodiversity of the Suffolk countryside.  The key to this was the Higher Level Stewardship  scheme of DEFRA which gives support to activities to encourage wildlife on the farm.

Patrick has taken this a step further.  Together with his cousin Brian they have not only created and enhanced the wildlife habitats on the family farm but also monitored the progress.  Brian with his trusty camera and Patrick using his binoculars and getting involved with bird ringing.  Some birds considered really threatened in the farmed landscape have been helped back to sustainability such as the Yellowhammer.  The wild bird cover provided keeps the birds fed and sheltered particularly through the winter period when recruitment of young birds to the population is vital.

The population of Brown Hares on the property is also very impressive.

If we are to encourage farmers to look after our wildlife we need schemes like HLS and we need these to bring in much more land than at present.  What better way to encourage more farmers on board than to have one of their own in Patrick to recruit more to carry out the outstanding work of him and his family.

Ravens

Working in the garden over the last few days My wife Beryl and I have been accompanied by a couple of Ravens.  Their incessant croaking and honking goes on all the time and we are curious as to what they are doing.  Occasionally they will fly around but most of the time they seem to be sitting in large trees.

At least once a day a Red Kite makes a flypast and then all hell lets loose .  The Ravens become agitated and will fly up and harass the Kite until it leaves the area.  May be the Ravens are setting up a territory already for next breeding season.  Although they do nest nearby we have never had them so close before and that would be nice.

Willow Tit coming to our feeders and just to make ID tricky also a Marsh Tit.  We have seen them both together but not for long.