Snow Bunting and Autumn.
25th October 2019
Autumn has truly arrived in the Brecon Beacons, the trees are starting to change colour and there is a noticeably colder feel to the mornings and evenings. I have started the oil stove in our living room as the evenings have become colder and what a fabulous heat it provides, it will now stay running continuously up until April.
We had an excellent crop of runner beans this summer and the bean plants have now gone into my recycling area to be composted. We have also had a reasonable apple crop and they are in storage and will last us up until Xmas. I have been busy cutting back hedges and giving what I hope is a final cut to the grass. We have had, as indeed many others have, an awful spell of wet weather since mid-September and it had been a struggle to get the outside work completed, and as I type it is raining again! Soon though I will be able to lubricate and put away the garden tools for another year.
There is a nice crop of hazelnuts in the hedgerows and it also looks like a good year for sloe berries. I am waiting for the leaves to fall before I set up my elevated photography pool, (see previous blog), for the winter and I hope to tempt some nice birds in to feed and drink there in the harsher weather.
Two days ago we heard some Tawny Owls hooting outside as soon as it had gone dark and when we investigated we were treated to three birds flying around us from our Ash tree in the garden onto a telecommunications pole. These were probably young birds that had been driven away by the adults and encouraged to find their own territories – it happens every year. A few weeks ago I went out to my car about 11.00pm to put something away and I shone a torch up into the same Ash tree to see if there were any Tawnies perched on the branches, but I couldn’t see anything. However, as I lowered the torch beam down it shone accidentally on the garden fence and there to my astonishment was a Barn Owl just looking at me. It didn’t like the torch beam and it flew off towards the woods nearby – a rare occurrence indeed in this area!
Yesterday Susan and I took the opportunity of a rare fine day to go and try to see a Snow Bunting that was showing quite well on a local moorland. Although rarely encountered these birds pass through the Beacons every year, coming south to lower ground. A place where they can typically be seen is on a beach in north Norfolk, where they will spend the winter. This is a very nice spectacle as a flock of these lovely birds behave like pieces of white foam being blown along the tide line.
Thirty years ago Susan and I were on a birding trip touring Scotland and we had walked up to the top of Ben Nevis, the UK’s highest mountain. It was a hard climb and a party of Germans in front of us turned back because it was too cold. We had to navigate a very steep sheet of ice about a hundred yards long in order to get to the top and this was in June! However, we got tucked in, sheltering from the biting cold in the ruins of the old observatory on the top. We were having a cup of coffee and a sandwich when I noticed something move out of the corner of my eye. Intrigued, I kept watching and amazingly a Snow Bunting hopped onto a rock just by the side of us. I broke off some bread from my sandwich and put it on the rock and the bird gratefully ate it and disappeared into the mist – a lovely encounter!
Snow Buntings are not shy birds. However, the bird on the local hillside that we went to see yesterday was one of the most confiding birds we have ever seen, it was walking right up to us and feeding less than six feet away. It was no challenge to photograph, it was just very nice to be that close to a lovely little bird.
Wintering Thrushes are starting to arrive now, with Fieldfares, Redwings and hopefully a few Ring Ouzels among them and who knows perhaps a Waxwing later on, and as always the Swallows, Swifts, Sand and House Martins which are part of our daily lives, have just faded away, one morning they are just not there any longer. We now have to embrace the autumn and winter just as we do spring and summer, I will try and photograph a few landscapes during this time and hopefully encounter some nice bird along the way.
We had an excellent crop of runner beans this summer and the bean plants have now gone into my recycling area to be composted. We have also had a reasonable apple crop and they are in storage and will last us up until Xmas. I have been busy cutting back hedges and giving what I hope is a final cut to the grass. We have had, as indeed many others have, an awful spell of wet weather since mid-September and it had been a struggle to get the outside work completed, and as I type it is raining again! Soon though I will be able to lubricate and put away the garden tools for another year.
There is a nice crop of hazelnuts in the hedgerows and it also looks like a good year for sloe berries. I am waiting for the leaves to fall before I set up my elevated photography pool, (see previous blog), for the winter and I hope to tempt some nice birds in to feed and drink there in the harsher weather.
Two days ago we heard some Tawny Owls hooting outside as soon as it had gone dark and when we investigated we were treated to three birds flying around us from our Ash tree in the garden onto a telecommunications pole. These were probably young birds that had been driven away by the adults and encouraged to find their own territories – it happens every year. A few weeks ago I went out to my car about 11.00pm to put something away and I shone a torch up into the same Ash tree to see if there were any Tawnies perched on the branches, but I couldn’t see anything. However, as I lowered the torch beam down it shone accidentally on the garden fence and there to my astonishment was a Barn Owl just looking at me. It didn’t like the torch beam and it flew off towards the woods nearby – a rare occurrence indeed in this area!
Yesterday Susan and I took the opportunity of a rare fine day to go and try to see a Snow Bunting that was showing quite well on a local moorland. Although rarely encountered these birds pass through the Beacons every year, coming south to lower ground. A place where they can typically be seen is on a beach in north Norfolk, where they will spend the winter. This is a very nice spectacle as a flock of these lovely birds behave like pieces of white foam being blown along the tide line.
Thirty years ago Susan and I were on a birding trip touring Scotland and we had walked up to the top of Ben Nevis, the UK’s highest mountain. It was a hard climb and a party of Germans in front of us turned back because it was too cold. We had to navigate a very steep sheet of ice about a hundred yards long in order to get to the top and this was in June! However, we got tucked in, sheltering from the biting cold in the ruins of the old observatory on the top. We were having a cup of coffee and a sandwich when I noticed something move out of the corner of my eye. Intrigued, I kept watching and amazingly a Snow Bunting hopped onto a rock just by the side of us. I broke off some bread from my sandwich and put it on the rock and the bird gratefully ate it and disappeared into the mist – a lovely encounter!
Snow Buntings are not shy birds. However, the bird on the local hillside that we went to see yesterday was one of the most confiding birds we have ever seen, it was walking right up to us and feeding less than six feet away. It was no challenge to photograph, it was just very nice to be that close to a lovely little bird.
Wintering Thrushes are starting to arrive now, with Fieldfares, Redwings and hopefully a few Ring Ouzels among them and who knows perhaps a Waxwing later on, and as always the Swallows, Swifts, Sand and House Martins which are part of our daily lives, have just faded away, one morning they are just not there any longer. We now have to embrace the autumn and winter just as we do spring and summer, I will try and photograph a few landscapes during this time and hopefully encounter some nice bird along the way.