Blowing more cobwebs away!

Water Cress in a crystal clear upland peat bog stream

Nothing beats getting out and about for a few hours to blow the cobwebs away, especially when it is a cloudy grey day. So with that in mind, my good friend Kerry and I headed up to Llangattock. The walk was just around the peat bog and to see what was about generally. It was a slow paced walk with a stop after an hour or so for a flask of tea and some nibbles. Throughout the walk we were accompanied by the calls overhead of Common Buzzards, and three Red Kites and a male Peregrine were also seen. A distant Jay could be heard calling from deep within the Hawthorn and Blackthorn copses.

The walk along the narrow but crystal clear stream was a delight. Water Cress was growing in abundance and the ground around the stream was carpeted with Sphagnum moss which dipped gently underfoot.

We passed many Hawthorns and Blackthorns on the way, and small groups of Fieldfares were taking advantage of the bumper berry crop. One Hawthorn caught our eye as entangled within it was a thick Ivy stem. Both species had grown and entwined together. Fruiting capsules of Polystrichum Commune moss poked up above the low grasses and amongst some Heather.

A Fox scat showed that there is an ample food source in the region for the local Foxes, and like Owls and certain other species of birds, they discard what can't be digested - bones and fur mainly. Birds regurgitate pellets whereas animals discard pellets by the usual means. If you were to prise apart the pellet, you would be able to identify the various jumble of tiny bones, most of which will be from rodents such as Field Mice, Field Voles etc, and there would be some bird bones too. Alongside the stream on some of the rocks and the ground were strange red coloured pellets. These are the droppings of Red Grouse - evidenced by the 'redness' from where they have been eating the fresh Heather shoots. Close by we found more pellets but these contained small seeds, and upon closer inspection, they turned out to be Hawthorn berry seeds, where the Grouse had been taking advantage of eating the fruits that had fallen to the ground.

Along the edge of the bog area were a number of Hazels growing, with the occasional Field Maple mixed in. The Hazel catkins take on a nice little shape at this time of the year, and form dense clumps often taken advantage of as a food source by the smaller birds - Blue Tits for example. Here and there was evidence of where the nuts had fallen from their casings to the ground, with the occasional one left in the casing that had not fallen out when ripe, or been picked by a person or Squirrel alike. 

It was fair to say that going out for a couple of hours certainly blew the cobwebs away and lifted the spirits. On the way back we stopped off at Tal-y-Bont Reservoir to the little bird hide at the far end, where the following birds of note were recorded:

5 Gooseanders, a pair of Little Grebes, 6 Cormorants, 6 Grey Herons, 9 Pied Wagtails, 11 Tufted Ducks, 5 Goldeneye and 37 Wigeon.