On May 16th we held our annual bird walk with Keith Offord, a well respected ornithologist, birdwatcher, photographer and close friend of the estate. Both morning and afternoon sessions were full of incredible sightings and plenty of bird song, with Keith going into detail on the intricacies of bird sound and the art of differentiating species based on their vocalisations.
The morning started strong, with Pied Flycatchers being spotted mere minutes after crossing the road from the farm shop and entering the grounds of Rhug Hall.
Wales is a hotspot for these summer visitors, with Keith explaining that they leave West Africa in search of longer daylight hours, as opposed to warmer weather or larger insect populations. They ultimately settle in woodland areas of the UK, including our very own grounds here at Rhug, where Keith has played an instrumental role in setting up a large amount of nest boxes for our breeding population. We observed multiple breeding pairs of Pied Flycatchers making use of the nest boxes dotted around the estate, which was a wonderful sight to see.
Another frequent spot during both sessions was the Eurasian Treecreeper. We observed these birds hunting for insects amongst the foliage, with Keith noting that they forage by spiralling upwards and around branches and trunks before departing at the top to start the process again on a different tree. In the afternoon session Keith pointed out the nesting behaviour of a pair of Treecreepers, by showing the group where one adult was entering a foliage covered opening in a tree trunk, whilst carrying hunted insects in its beak.
Some of the notable bird hearings of the morning session included Redstarts, Blackcaps, Song Thrush and Mistle Thrush. One particularly elusive Redstart evaded being spotted by sheltering amongst the leaves of a large sycamore tree in the deer enclosure, but its song could be clearly heard across the grounds, whilst a lone Mistle Thrush foraged for worms amongst the grass, and a pair of competing Song Thrushes had taken to the tops of trees in order to play out their expansive bird song repertoire. Keith explained that in order to compete with other male song thrushes for a females attention, a male must stand out by having as wide a range of musical phrases as possible, even to the extent of copying bird song from other species.
The afternoon session had an incredibly special encounter, when the group spotted a lone Tawny owlet, asleep on a branch a few metres above our heads. It is exceptionally uncommon to see a Tawny Owl during the day, so we had been lucky enough to catch this little one in the process of branching, the period of a Tawny Owls juvenile life where they explore branches nearby to the nest using their beaks, feet and feeble flapping of their wings. Keith estimated this owlets age at approximately four weeks old, explaining that it was likely exploring its surroundings without having yet developed the ability to fly.
This wasn’t the only new life spot of the day however, with the morning session being treated to a large group of ducklings exploring the Fish Pond, and the afternoon session getting the opportunity to observe a nesting female Pied Flycatcher incubating her clutch of eggs.
Keith explained that these small, house sparrow sized birds would often sit on clutches of six eggs, noting that he’d observed females sitting on clutches of up to nine eggs in the past. He also explained that the female will not leave the nest box and the eggs even when a human observes the nest by opening the lid, displaying a remarkable act of maternal protective behaviour rather than seeking self preservation at a potential threat. Observations were kept brief, quiet and distanced, in order to not stress the expecting mother, and we hope that this breeding pair has a successful season with the help of our estates nest boxes.
Thank you to Keith Offord for hosting this incredible Bird Walk event, and we hope to see him and more of you back soon for more wildlife-centric events. You can find more information about Keith and his services on keithofford.co.uk.
All images © Joe Derbyshire 2026. All rights reserved.
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