April to June is the golden period as far as I am concerned – a time when after a long and hard winter, the Welsh Uplands dust themselves off and open for business.Spring migrants may have been thin on the ground this morning in the north Berwyns and a quick glance over towards Carnedd-y-filiast revealed a covering of snow still, but a warm sun and a large chorus of birdsong certainly put a bit more spring in the old step; a spring I may add that is a little more compressed by a heavier load than last year!
A Tree Pipit was good too see – on territory and full of beans too, blasting out verse after verse. Meadow and Tree Pipits can be hard to separate, but this male was an excellent exhibiter of the thin flank stripes and contrasting white/buffish belly most reference books refer to. But, why get technical when the Pipit was, after all, sitting on top of a Tree…
A pair of Wheatears were also on territory and perched on their preferred type of real estate too – a ramshackle stone wall. A flyover Raven was the next bird of note, but save the odd distant Buzzard, the area was unusually devoid of any other raptors.
Glyndyfrdwy 09.04.10
1 Tree Pipit
2 Wheatear
2 Stonechat
1 Raven
