R & R

Having dipped on the Glaucous-winged Gull yesterday, I couldn't face another go today, so popped down to the Land of Corn for a jolly, stress-free day, touring round for a few nice birds. At close of play the following had been hoovered up: White-billed Diver, Gyr Falcon, Franklin's Gull, Spotted Sandpiper, Dusky Warbler and 'Central Asian Lesser Whitethroat' (does anyone actually believe these can be positively identified in the field?). Quite a day out, especially given the views of the diver, outrageous!

Something to fill the void

Just a pic to prove I am still birding. This bird, present at Avonmouth on and off for the last 100 years, might have been the Gwent bird of sometime back. Some keen person should check out the dates in the reports just to be sure.

Snow and brambles

A bit of excitement at the bird table, what more could you possibly ask for?

Diver sp.

Had a lovely Sunday afternoon in Pembrokeshire at the weekend. I wonder where the BBRC draws the line with a recently split crypto-tick when it shows only 50% of the features that were thought to be failsafe before we all started looking at Black-throats.


Quite small (though not as small as some would have you believe), thin billed, pale nape and lacking a white flank patch...


... also lacking a chinstrap, and anything like the vent-strap of the North Yorks bird (is that a thin brownish strap beyond the foot?).

I'm assuming the overlap zone between pacifica and viridigularis isn't swarming with hybrids.

Bugger

179, one-seven-bleedin'-nine. The Lesser Peckers at Silent Valley and Goytre were very lesser, to the point of being non-existent; the Grey Partridges at Bassaleg didn't play ball either, mind you, given the wet and windy conditions, any self-respecting partridge would have been buried in the bottom of a hedge while I stomped the stubble; and God knows how I failed on Red Kite, but I did. Even a desperate last minute seawatch, an attempt for Little Gull, was only rewarded with a Med Gull (the Little Gull appeared on the 1st Jan, do the birds know?).

Ho-hum,... perhaps I shouldn't have gone on those trips to Georgia and the Azores, no focus you see, no focus...

Third site lucky

Having failed to see Lesser Pecker at Silent Valley and Red Kite at Garnlydan, I was finally repaid for seven and a half hours of effort by a gorgeous male Hen Harrier hunting over Waunafon Bog. Another 'regular' species bites the dust, 179 species have now been accrued (just one more and I'll be happy, not ecstatic, but happy).

Q. Why do ducks float?

A. Because they're all plastic... but you gotta go and see 'em, just in case.

Dark-bellied Brent Goose in the dark

Spent the best part of the day at Caldicot Moor and Collister/West Pill, whilst looking for the reported Brents and Grey Partridges found: two Jack Snipe, two Red-legged Partridge, six Golden Plover, one Bar-tailed Godwit and a Stoat. Just before dark two Dark-bellied Brents appeared on the mudflats,... kerr-ching 178. And, in case you were wondering, this is what a Dark-bellied Brent in the dark looks like...

Desperate measures

OK, desperate measures are required. Today the local patch failed miserably to produce the slightest whiff of a year-tick, therefore, I need recent Gwent gen on: Grey Partridge, Red Kite, Hen Harrier, Barn Owl, Long-eared Owl, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and Black Redstart. If you have any recent sightings or suggestions (NOT breeding locations, please don't put breeding sites of Schedule 1 species on a website) please click on 'comment' below and leave me some year-list enhancing information. Cheers all,... now don't fall over each other in the rush.

Two more

Finally! Wentwood produced Marsh Tit and Crossbill today, filling a couple of glaring gaps in the list. Unfortunately, the Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers at Goytre House Wood did not see fit to behave accordingly and a couple of numptee shotgun bearers f**ked up any chance of a recount of the Bewick's at Llangibby. Oh well, 177 in the bag, one week to go.