Oh, most mournful 'Anas, alack!'

Six hours in the field, three in pouring precipitation,... laaaaavely! The day was made all the better for lacking anything of real ornithological note, although a Mallard x Pintail hybrid appeared, post-deluge, amongst the Mallards (perhaps hybrid ducks fall from the clouds, a birding biblical plague, sent to try us by the big bearded birding pixie).

Two things to ponder whilst you peek at the pics: 1. this appears to be one of the less variable and easy to ID hybrids (see the following for photos of living, dead and long dead specimens; and here for a smorgasboard of all manner of Mallard hybrid action); and 2. auto white balance is an, as yet, imperfect feature on the Coolpix 5100 (although, as ever, pilot error remains a possible explanation for the faux 'warmth' in the first image).


For the record, whilst this hybrid combination appears to occur quite regularly 'in the wild', the origin of the bird above is clouded by the fact that a Wood Duck hybrid was found in almost exactly the same spot a couple of weeks back (it looks like a Wood Duck x Wigeon sp. to me, however, I didn't see it in the field and am only going on the phone-scoped image below [when I originally looked at it on the phone, my first thought was Wigeon x Mallard, oops!]. Presumably somebody not too far away is: a. putting the wrong ducks with the wrong drakes; and b. totally inept at keeping the questionable results in their cages.

Image courtesy of a bull,... wait a minute, let me try that again,... Image courtesy of A. Bull.

Should you feel the need, images of various Wood Duck hybrids (including Wigeon and Chiloe Wigeon combinations) are here; Wood Duck x Mallard pics are here; and Wood Duck x Pintail pics are here,... the very epitomy of bedtime reading I think we can all agree,... zzzzz.

Melt-in-the-mouth meat

Still present, still feeding on fetid lamb and still looking surprisingly good for it.

Hey good lookin', what's your secret?

Well, I eat a healthy breakfast of grey sheep flesh, followed by a light lunch of grey sheep flesh and round the day off with a grey sheep flesh supper,... it's nutritious, low in calories and tastes great. Gives me gosh awful wind mind, I'm having to sleep with my nose upwind of my arse and, at the office, I've been banned from using the lift.

PS. Forgot to mention, also had Redpoll and low-flying Helmeted Guineafowl at beautiful Beachley.

Illegal bird trapping in Gwent

Just in case anyone doesn't visit the GOS homepage,...

Last Thursday an illegally set net (probably aimed at trapping finches) was found on the Newport Wetland Reserve which resulted in the death of a Reed Bunting (luckily, a number of other birds were released). If you see anything suspicious on the reserve please contact either the CCW reserve manager (Kevin Dupe) on 01633 275813 or the the Police Wildlife Liaison Officer for Newport (Tony Williams) on 01633 244999. There have been suspicious reports of bird trapping elsewhere on the levels in the past, so keep please your eyes open whenever out and about.

Mist-netting of birds to be ringed as part of the BTO Ringing Scheme is undertaken by the Goldcliff Ringing Group on the reserve (though largely on private parts of the site), and at other sites in the county. BTO ringers check their nets at 15-30 minute intervals (depending on conditions) so should be regularly visible and are pretty approachable and happy to answer queries but, if you see anything suspicious, err on the side of caution and contact the numbers above.

According to the RSPB website, last year, they received 64 reports of the illegal taking, possession or sale of wild birds (other than birds of prey) across the UK, these predominately involved finches. There is a market both in the UK and Europe (e.g. Malta) and birds fetch £40+ for the bastards doing the selling. As someone once said,... keep 'em peeled.

Goldie Lookin' Plover

A wander around the western half of the Uskmouth Lagoons late morning/early afternoon produced 1-2 Peregrine, 4 Water Rail, 15 Cetti's and 6 Siskin. Dusk at Goldcliff wasn't much better, although the leucistic female Lapwing and a single Golden Plover were amongst the best part of 1,000 Lapwing on the first lagoon.

Amongst a whole lot of these...

... was one of these.

November has been kind

Had a little count this evening, turns out yesterday's (and still present) phalarope was the 215th species I have slapped eyes on within the bounds of Gwent (plus Quail which I've only slapped ears on). Bit ropey as county lists go, but it is a great excuse to upload another photo of the cheeky little chappy.

Reservoir in 'quite good' shocker!

A bright point in the middle of, an otherwise, dreary day...

I can see I'm going to have to think up a new nickname for Llareggub; two Gwent ticks in five days, that's bordering on not shit that is.

I'm going to heaven

Today went a bit like this...

MISSING SEA-MONSTERS IN THE CHANNEL
A tragicomedy in one long drawn out (and ongoing) act
By someone who should really know better

Act I (continued), scene iii
Scene: morning in an early 20th century house, a phone rings once, twice, thrice...
Enter Me

Me: (picking up phone) Hello?
Voice of county recorder: There's a Black/White-bellied Storm-petrel off Severn Beach... (the voice is drowned out by high volume screaming and arrhythmic percussive sounds as the stage is drenched in buckets of fake blood thrown from the wings)

(the rest of the scene consists of five hours of abstract improvised freeform contemporary dance, interspersed with alternating mime and primal scream sequences expressing shock, a lack of milk in the fridge, manic phone calls, the hinderance of the M4/M48, being asked "So, what does one of these look like anyway?", plotting the untimely demise of the creators of TurdForum, the inevitable crushing gloom of the dip and the act of carving "Fregetta sp." into one's forearm alongside "Magnificent Frigatebird" and "Yellow-nosed Albatross".)

Exeunt Me

A dark work I think you'll agree, but just the latest offering in a long tradition of birding related art; did you know Francisco Goya's Black Paintings were produced as a direct result of dipping Spain's first Lesser Flamingo.

Birder and the wrong sort of petrel.

Pom Skua just after it harried a large yellow lorry on the Severn Bridge.

PS. And why am I going to heaven? One of my pre-leaving manic phone calls resulted in a colleague connecting with the flipping bird, I couldn't negate that sort of positive ornithological karma in a lifetime of trying.

Birds report

Der-dum, der-dum, der-dum, der-dum, der-diddly-dum-der-dum

Good evening and welcome to Birds Report live from Abercwimcum, the headlines: Pom Skua takes over at the top with a confident display in today's early kick-off; Jack Snipe come from 1 - 0 down to triumph 2 - 1 away to Water Pipit; and, after a strong showing at the weekend, Little Gull are beaten by fellow strugglers Kittiwake. Coming up, we'll hear from Tel O'Scope on a good day in trying conditions but first a full check on the classified birding results with James Ferguson Lees Alexander Gordon:

Pomarine Skua 1 - Great Skua 0
Kittiwake 1 - Little Gull 0
Water Pipit 1 - Jack Snipe 2

And finally...
Wigeon x Mallard hybrid against Leach's Petrel match postponed.

[What does any of that mean?! I'll tell you what it means,... they put too much sugar in Tesco's doughnuts, that's what it means!]

PS. Naturally, none of the species mentioned above were seen within the borders of the county from which this blog gets the first of its three titular syllables.

A bit of little action

Another Weekendbirder text message, another scramble to the motor and, a short drive later, I'm standing in another downpour watching one of the better looking larids daintily picking an erratic path across the murky moistness of Llareggub. Cracking little creature and my first for for the county,... scher-weeet.

A Gwent tick, a very palpable Gwent tick.

PS. The bird showed reasonably well at the dam end of the reservoir, albeit regularly buggering off out into the middle, still present just before dark, so almost certainly roosted.

Plastic pants

Spent the day walking around with my waterproof trousers on backwards. It took me four hours of traipsing seawall and saltmarsh at Peterstone to realise my mishtake, by which time I'd manage to not find the Snow Bunting and avoid the two Black Redstarts both, possibly, the result of the trouser malwearance (actually the lack of Black Redstart might have had something to do with the fact I stopped short of the blockhouse but anyhoo...). I did see at least 10 Water Pipits (eight together at one point) but that was about that. Checked a few fields at the West Usk/Ebbw estuary end of the levels on the way home but, apart from the tip attracting a decent number of gulls in the distance, only Stonechats broke the tedium.

On returning home all thoughts of boredom were banished, Birding World had appeared and Jack threw up (twice), I do not know if the two were related, they may well have been.