Following the heavy rain this week, the river Usk is running high, the dipper perches I had in mind are submerged, all other boulders are washed clean, so tracking down Dippers will be very difficult, so it is not worthwhile visiting the proposed first venue at Llangynidir bridge/ coed yr ynys
Elan valley woods are slightly more leaf advanced than I would like, but there are good numbers of pied fly and willow warbler on territory now. I located 3 singing wood warblers on the nearby RSPB woodlands, but none on the Elan zig zag path. I have set up some simple feeding stations so will now travel directly to Elan for 8.00am to top up the feeders - first time I have tried this, nothing ventured nothing gained.......
My second dipper site was also devoid of birds, so after lunch it may be more productive to either stay on the zig zags or look for the nearby wood warbler, before moving to nearby Gigrin farm. Consencus will prevail on the day.
first rendezvous Elan Valley reserve centre a.m. to lunchtime - look out for blue mercedes
early afternoon - more of the same or slow drive on loop road from Elan to Rhyader on reservoir/moorland road looking for wheatear/whinchat, or nearby RSPB woodland slopes looking for wood warbler and more pied fly/redstart
late pm Rhyader/Gigrin farm for the ritual casting of a tractor load of bones.......
Regards Dippers my impression from the recce is that all British resident birds bred very early this year so are now ranging widely with fledged young. There is a pair of yellow wagtail at on the Usk at "venue 1" but they had fledged full size juveniles and so were very flighty - take the northern footpath upstream from the bridge if you want to call in there. If you want to specifically target dippers you will need to spend a whole day casing out suitable streams/rivers, in the time available on this trip I cannot guarantee Dippers, hence I don't think it is a worthwhile "group" exercise spending time on the river Usk or the river systems near Elan/Rhyader. (I spent 2 hours yesterday casing out most of the likely stream systems and found nothing)
Final thoughts for Elan - as I said leaf break is more advanced than I would ideally like so most areas where the pied fly are resident are now overshadowed, if you have a flashgun system bring it, especially if we get overcast conditions
BBC forecast for tomorrow at Builth Wells is sunshine and showers, 12mph winds.
I'm still going to Elan as planned - weather on Thursday was much worse and the birds were still relatively active......., Gigrin has 4 weather proof hides if you are worried about getting your equipment wet.
Discussion
8 repliesFollowing the heavy rain this week, the river Usk is running high, the dipper perches I had in mind are submerged, all other boulders are washed clean, so tracking down Dippers will be very difficult, so it is not worthwhile visiting the proposed first venue at Llangynidir bridge/ coed yr ynys
Elan valley woods are slightly more leaf advanced than I would like, but there are good numbers of pied fly and willow warbler on territory now. I located 3 singing wood warblers on the nearby RSPB woodlands, but none on the Elan zig zag path. I have set up some simple feeding stations so will now travel directly to Elan for 8.00am to top up the feeders - first time I have tried this, nothing ventured nothing gained.......
My second dipper site was also devoid of birds, so after lunch it may be more productive to either stay on the zig zags or look for the nearby wood warbler, before moving to nearby Gigrin farm. Consencus will prevail on the day.
Mike
first rendezvous Elan Valley reserve centre a.m. to lunchtime - look out for blue mercedes
early afternoon - more of the same or slow drive on loop road from Elan to Rhyader on reservoir/moorland road looking for wheatear/whinchat, or nearby RSPB woodland slopes looking for wood warbler and more pied fly/redstart
late pm Rhyader/Gigrin farm for the ritual casting of a tractor load of bones.......
Regards Dippers my impression from the recce is that all British resident birds bred very early this year so are now ranging widely with fledged young. There is a pair of yellow wagtail at on the Usk at "venue 1" but they had fledged full size juveniles and so were very flighty - take the northern footpath upstream from the bridge if you want to call in there. If you want to specifically target dippers you will need to spend a whole day casing out suitable streams/rivers, in the time available on this trip I cannot guarantee Dippers, hence I don't think it is a worthwhile "group" exercise spending time on the river Usk or the river systems near Elan/Rhyader. (I spent 2 hours yesterday casing out most of the likely stream systems and found nothing)
Final thoughts for Elan - as I said leaf break is more advanced than I would ideally like so most areas where the pied fly are resident are now overshadowed, if you have a flashgun system bring it, especially if we get overcast conditions
Pete
I'm still going to Elan as planned - weather on Thursday was much worse and the birds were still relatively active......., Gigrin has 4 weather proof hides if you are worried about getting your equipment wet.
See you there tomorrow. I'm going to head to Coed yr Ynys first as a scouting visit since I need to set off just after 4 anyway!!