Birds on the hill
Our ecological surveys are a core part of our long-term approach to managing our pilot Common Land plant site on Bryn Arw. The Woodland Trust supported us in setting up the original baseline surveys, and we've worked with volunteers from the ONS and University of Birmingham to make sure we're maintaining these rigorous methods to give us a continuous, long-term data set.
They also happen to be my marker for the real signs that spring has started and summer is on the way; that first morning out welcoming the birds that have flown back to the hill.
Our surveys are led by an amazing core of volunteers, and we asked if they could write our blogs this season - we couldn't do this all without them, and we wanted you to hear their voices and reasons for getting involved. Sheelagh is a (gentle but) absolute driving force in enabling us to do this on a yearly basis, so I'm really happy that she's introducing us in the first of (hopefully) a series from the team.
"Early Morning – Fri 12th April 2024
The first Bryn Arw Bird Survey of the season and the two teams were well rewarded with hearing the 1st cuckoo of this spring even before we had left the cars. After so much wet weather it was actually a dry and fine dawn. Highlights included plenty of willow warblers singing from the bushes (having only arrived back from Africa in the last few days), several ‘little bit of bread and no cheese’ calls from smart Yellowhammers and equally dapper male stonechats siting proud on young trees or even bamboo canes. The southern team did well seeing a Peregrine, 3 Red Kites and a Buzzard. We are all looking forward to next early morning survey in May!
Sheelagh Kerry
12/04/24"
Can you identify which birds from Sheelagh's blog are below?
Bryn Arw Birds
These are images from the BTO (British Trust of Ornithology), click on the bird to go to their pages and find out a little more about each one.
