Whinchats

Just a very slight correction in Bob's earlier post. The first whinchat record on Foel Fawr this year was on 12th May (it may have been a passage bird) but following recent concerns re the numbers there I did an early morning survey of the whole area recently and had three singing males. I also popped up there yesterday afternoon and had one singing male close to the footpath on the Melindwr side of the Foel and one much higher up close to the bracken/heather line, also on the Melindwr side of the hill. Whinchats like more of a mosaic of habitats and so we will be manually cutting around 0.5ha of bracken soon to create some more open areas (after carefully checking for breeding birds before we cut of course). Whinchat numbers are gradually decreasing on the reserve (we have lost them from Allt-ddu in the Llyfnant valley) and so we hope some habitat management will help maintain, or even boost breeding numbers.