After a months enforced absence I am back and able to blog regularly once more. Over the last five weeks I have bought a house in Pontarddulais near Swansea and have moved in. There is a lot of work still to do but things are at a point where I have the time to update here and also get out and about and catch up with the rest of the Autumn migration.
The best thing about the new house is its location and garden with mature planting. The back of the house backs onto open hillsides whilst the front looks out over the Loughour estuary and the Gower beyond. We put the bird feeders out barely a week ago but the number of birds visiting already is very encouraging. We currently have regular visits from three Coal Tits, up to seven House Sparrows, four Chaffinch, a couple of Blue Tits and Great Tits, a Dunnock and a Robin as well as a sizable flock of Jackdaws who have already mastered the knack of flying off with whole fat balls. The best thing though so far has been the raptors. We have a Red Kite that hunts over the garden and surrounding hillsides, as well as a couple of Buzzards and a Kestral. Other random visits have included two Ravens and fly overs from a Cormorant as well as a Grey Heron. In just a week that it is an impressive list and variety like I would never have imagined. The plan is to develop the garden into a wildlife haven so hopefully things will only get better over time. It is certainly a step up from the grass square that I had at my previous house.
The Coal Tits in particular are proving to be quite tame, so over the coming weeks I am slowly introducing myself in the hope of getting some good photographs. I have already spent hours watching the Jackdaws and some of the characters and behaviors that I have seen have been fascinating. I may try and record the species in more detail to see if I get the same individuals and can spot patterns in their interactions. For now here are a couple of pictures that I have taken so far.
The rest of this week will be taken up with some of the pictures from the last month or so that I didn’t get chance to post at the time. It’s certainly nice to look back at the sun after the weekend of weather that we have just had!”
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