Tall grass & young broadleaf amidst the Hafren Forest
Following on from last week's recordings made up on the open moorland, today I'm in the Hafren forest, an area of predomiantly conifer plantation a few km downstream from the river's source. In recent years, much of the spruce has been felled, and native broadleaf species established along the river corridor. This has opened up the area to an influx of birds, some of which can be heard here. I'm subtitling this entry, "warblers in the woods" for reasons which will become apparent. Again, this is a short sequence of excerpts from recordings made throughout the day.
On a forest track about 100m up from the river, the first warbler, a Chiffchaff, holds forth. I hear him singing as I approach, hone in on his location, set up my microphones and record for about 20 minutes before he finally moves away. Here he is alternating his song with brief calls, so perhaps some youngsters are around. About 5 minutes of this recording is included here, before the wind picks up too much. Then I walk down nearer to the river, following its path to the tributary, Nant Tanllwyth. Here, in a marshy area which might well be an oxbow lake in formation, the stream gurgles beneath the songs of Chaffinch and Wren.
I move away from the river again and up into a more open area of young willow, birch, & alder. Despite being past midsummer, a chattering Blue Tit is still singing his two-tone spring song, bees buzz and, with the ground now warmed by the afternoon sun, a grasshopper strikes up its high pitched trill. Then I notice the jumbled song of what sounds to me like a Garden Warbler, or a "random" warbler as I like to call them. They are quite common around here during the summer months but, like the other members of the warbler family, migrate to warmer climes during the winter.
Following the marked track up through the forest, I can hear the roar of Rhaeadr Blaenhafren (waterfall at the head of the river severn). Although the waterfall sounds like a huge torrent, it's really quite depleted compared to some years, and so I am able to get very close and perch on a smooth rock ledge overlooking a plunge-pool mid way down. Pointing my microphones directly at the pool, I slowly bring them up over my head and down towards the second stage of the waterfall in a 180 degree arc. Listening back to this I like to think that it gives the effect of flying low over the waterfall, but maybe that's just wishful thinking...
Today, I decide not to climb the steep trail up onto the moorland, but instead return to an area of newly planted broadleaf and a Chiffchaff, Black-cap duet. So that's warbler number three & concludes this episode of "warblers in the woods"!
Recorded: 2021-07-08
Location:52.4740, -3.7053 & surrounding area
Download full length recording:
27min, 56MB, .ogg format
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