Francis Hickenbottom’s Nature Notes.
I spent the New Year period in Wales, with my family, staying at Llandigige. Heavy
rain kept us in the house for the first two days but clear, cold weather set in on
New Year’s Eve, allowing us to get out of doors once more.
On my first walk down to Treteio Moor, I saw a male hen harrier flying low across
the fields. The harrier was only visible for a few seconds before it dropped behind
a hedge and disappeared. Whilst trying to relocate the harrier, I spotted five whooper
swans flying low across the moor and heading towards me. The whooper swans - one
adult and four immature birds - settled in a field of grass. A slight rise in the
field meant that only their heads were visible from the road, except when I walked
along the road a short distance and was able to view them through a gateway.
The whooper swans were still present on the 1st of January and had remained in the
same corner of the field. I was not able to check the field on the 2nd.
Cliff-top walks were quite productive and the lighting was very striking on New Year’s
Day, when the low Sun was illuminating the cliffs whilst dark skies out to sea were
carrying snow showers towards us. On New Year’s Eve, I spotted two black redstarts.
The first of these was actually sitting on the coastal path just ahead of us, near
Pwll-caerog. I live in the wrong part of the country to see this species during the
breeding season and have seen it more frequently whilst on holiday on the European
mainland.
On New Year’s Day, I walked, with my family, from Trefin to Abercastle and back again.
During the walk, we were treated to a spectacular aerobatic display by a male peregrine
falcon and a raven.
The peregrine and the raven were in the air above a steep-sided cove. The peregrine
stooped repeatedly at the raven whilst the raven responded by rolling over to present
its claws to the peregrine. The peregrine, which looked much smaller than the raven,
plunged very steeply and at high speed but the raven didn’t seem intimidated and
continued to fly around the rim of the cove. However, an immature herring gull which
entered the cove was pursued with much more vigour. The peregrine made repeated stoops
and followed each one up with a high-speed chase, until the gull flew away.
