Sunday was another phone/work/house balancing act but with the sun blazing I couldn’t resist slipping down to Coed Bach Park for a couple of hours late morning. The hope was that Bluebells would be starting to put in an appearance and, though far from the full display which should appear over the next couple of weeks, there were plenty to keep this wandering soul happy. Dappled sunlight leant the early display an extra quality and I was taken just as much by the architectural sculpture-like quality of the surrounding trees as I was by the Bluebells which had initially drawn me here.

P1120544 - Coed Bach Woods
P1120550 - Coed Bach Woods
04 April1 - Coed Bach Woods

Walking slowly through the cool shade allowed me to soak up the cacophony of bird song which permeated the very fabric of this small but treasured woodland. Blackbirds and Robins seemed to be everywhere, their tuneful calls interspersed with the harsher sounds of Blue Tits and Great Tits. At times it felt as if the whole woodland was alive such was the extent of to-ing and fro-ing and by following a couple of individuals I found both House Sparrow and Blue Tit nests hidden deep within the cracks of various tree boughs.

P1120554 - Coed Bach Woods

Over in the second woods Chiffchaffs, Willow Warblers and a drumming Great Spotted Woodpecker joined the fray as I once again focused on the flowers. Here the Bluebell display was slightly further advanced with Wood Anemones filling in the gaps producing a patchwork of colour which, and this is coming from someone who freely admits to not really ‘getting’ flowers, was very pleasing on the eye. Despite such nice surroundings this Wren appeared to be incredibly angry and gave me a great display before I retreated and left him to it. Message understood.

P1120563_2 - Wren

My real birding highlight though was down on the football pitches where pairs of both Song and Mistle Thrush were feeding. The Song Thrushes only stuck around for a few moments but as I hid behind a tree one of the Mistle Thrushes slowly worked its way towards me. With the pitches being raised a couple of foot above the path this gave me a great vantage point from which to take this photo. I’m rather pleased with it.

P1120579 - Mistle Thrush

Having come this far I decided to push my luck a little further and headed out onto the marsh to walk along the banks of the Loughor. One of the small pools held a couple of Shelduck but hirundine numbers were still low with just a solitary Swallow seen. There were however a couple of calling Cetti’s Warblers and best of all two Sedge Warblers followed by a Common Sandpiper.

P1120581 - Upper Loughor

For those that don’t know the area I thought a little context would be good so the next shot is taken with my back to the river looking towards Graig Fawr (hill on the left) and Cefn Drum on the right. For those of you who’ve been following my Patchwork Challenge updates the latter should be familiar and hopefully gives a sense of how the various locations relate. It’s a surprisingly attractive area given its industrial heritage.

P1120583 - Upper Loughor

Back at the house it was time for the gardens first mow of the year and I finally got around to adding a new escape route to the pond. We’ve got so much Hedgehog poo about at the moment and I’d hate for one to fall in.


5 Comments

betty-NZ · May 1, 2015 at 10:23 pm

What a lovely time with nature! It's nice to see early spring and hear it all around you. Wonderful shots!

    Adam Tilt · May 12, 2015 at 9:29 pm

    Can't beat this time of year.

eileeninmd · May 2, 2015 at 10:59 am

Beautiful scenery, I love the tree shots.. And the wren and thrush are adorable… Great post, enjoy your weekend!

Stewart M · May 3, 2015 at 2:08 am

What a great looking bit of woodland – spring with you, autumn with me!

Cheers – Stewart M – Melbourne

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