Waderfest

The purple patch continues with Broad-billed Sand and Temminck's Stint both on the first lagoon at Goldcliff this evening. The Broad-billed Sand had been found yesterday but, due to various unfortunate occurrences including (and I quote) "some old codger saying it was just a Dunlin", did not get reported until lunchtime today. Luckily it was still present this evening and, even more luckily, a Temminck's dropped out of the sky to join it. Two nice big ticks on my list of 'birds I have seen within the borders of the county of Gwentcestershire'; three in three days, I hope it slows down or it'll make maintaining the bitter and twisted tone of this blog a right old effort.

And now for the photographic masterpiece you have come to expect...

And again

The alarm went off at 04:10 today, out of the house by 04:35; this weekend has become some sort of birding stamina test. A morning at Uskmouth produced another mixed singing Willow Warbler [this one singing an awful lot of tsilp/tsalp notes, probably slightly higher pitched than most Chiffchaffs, at various points in relation to normal phrases (unlike the bird a few days ago which sang less of them and always as an introduction to normal phrases)] and a Red Kite (patch-tick!).

Arrived back home about lunchtime and proceeded to eat, snooze, wake-up, snooze, drink coffee, listen to footy, drink more coffee... When suddenly,... the peaceful idyll was shattered with the news that a Black-winged Stilt was pottering around at Goldcliff! Three phone-calls and five minutes later, it's off to the pools. By the time we had arrived the stilt had snuck off unseen to a place unknown, 15 minutes of much scannage ensued. Eventually the bird appeared on the back lagoon and proceeded to show well, if distantly, for the assembled masses (all 10 of us), despite one or two of the Avocets being less than welcoming.

Two patch-ticks in a day,... nice.

An early start

Crawled out of bed at 04:15, down on the reserve by 05:05, is this normal behaviour on a Sunday morning? Singing Gropper and flyover Marsh Harrier at Uskmouth and a rather smart Black Tern at Goldcliff were the highlights of the morning. The tern would have been pretty good, if only some blighter in Glamorgan hadn't trumped it with a Whiskered,... buggerybollockytwatbag!



PS. Did you know there's a man with a mullet going mad with a mallet in Millets? Or at least, so say Messers Blackwell, Crossley, Hancock and Henry.

Does the pope shit in the woods?

Saw the original of this here and couldn't help myself.

An ickle trickle

The migrants have been coming in dribs and drabs this week. Marsh Harrier, Greenshank, Whimbrel, Curlew Sandpiper, Cuckoo, Yellow Wagtail, Tree Pipit, Wheatear and Garden Warbler have all appeared at the NWR, in varying doses. In concert the aforementioned have managed to maintain some vague impression of spring passage and drag the birding mood out of the usual wrist slitting Gwentish gloom. If anything, the mammals have done as much to improve the general disposition as the birds with both Badger and Hare popping up. Large Red Damselflies have also been appearing this week,... I can barely contain myself.


[Note to self: don't listen to Radiohead whilst writing posts (even if Thom Yorke is bashing away at a tambourine on the track, Thom on tambourine! Whatever next,... kazoo?)]

The reeds are alive with the sound of acros

She said "There's something in the reedbed
I know because I saw it
I can't simply ignore it, darling"
He said "Now baby, don't be stupid
Get this into your sweet head
There ain't nothing in the reedbed (except maybe some reeds)"

[to be sung to the tune of 'Something for the weekend' by The Divine Comedy (with apologies to Neil Hannon et al.)]

Do my ears deceive me?

Forgot to mention, on Saturday I had a Willow Warbler (or what appeared to be a Willow Warbler, the views obtained didn't allow DNA analysis) singing a mixed Chiffchaff/Willow song. Every now and again it would introduce a 'normal' Willow phrase with pretty classic 'tsilp tsalp' Chiffchaff notes. According to BWP this isn't all that rare. The only mixed singing I've heard before (many moons ago on the lovely Surrey/Hants border) was a Willow that interspersed its normal song phrases with soft 'trett' syllables performed in a typical Chiffchaff rhythm (as often heard from Chiffchaffs in between their normal phrases). Unfortunately, on both occasions, I was lacking any recording gear, might try and refind this latest fella though.

Another two 'did I hear that right?' moments this week came courtesy of Man City. The first was the the announcement today that they have taken a shot-gun and blasted both their feet off (see here); the second, a direct result of the first, was Noel Gallagher talking sense (listen to the snippet embedded in the link above, I particularly like the final remark). Could this be the first season where one manager loses his job despite winning the Premiership/Champions League double and another loses his despite his club having the best season for 20 years? Who said people who have amassed multi-million pound fortunes through nefarious means know nothing about football? As a Liverpool fan, can I just say - nice timing Thaksin, you football genius you (still fighting those corruption charges too, bummer).

Moppage

Spent a few hours mopping up the last of the Cetti's today whilst keeping half an eye on the sky for flyover stilts. No stilts, did manage to bump into two Gwent goodies though. Five or six distant Common Scoter bobbed past on the Severn Sea off Goldcliff (well they looked distant, I suppose they might just have had their minds on something else) and a Marsh Harrier caused havoc over the pools before flopping off westwards. There are still oodles of Wheatears piling in, which is a perfect excuse to use a pic from yesterday so here it is...


Oh, hold on, that's definitely not the picture I was hoping would appear, I s'pose it does have a white arse though. Oh well, you know what a Wheatear looks like, use your imagination, if you have anything like a half-decent imagination, you now have a better image in your head than I had in my camera (everyone's a winner!).

Just checking,... you are thinking of Northern Wheatear aren't you? If not, you now have a much better image in your head than I had in my camera and that is totally unfair so stop it.

The end begins

When a day that you happen to know is Saturday starts off by sounding like Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somewhere.

I felt that from the moment I woke. And yet, when I started functioning a little more sharply, I misgave. After all, the odds were that it was I who was wrong, and not everyone else - though I did not see how that could be. I went on waiting, tinged with doubt. But presently I had my first bit of objective evidence - a distant clock struck what sounded to me just like five. I listened hard and suspiciously. Soon another clock began, on a loud, decisive note. In a leisurely fashion it gave an indisputable five. Then I knew things were awry.


Or, to put it another way - today, whilst we pootled around the reserve counting the Cetti's we bagged a mighty 58 Wheatears. I prefer the first version, albeit John Wyndham is currently doing about 500 rpm within his last resting place.

I wonder whether we could harness the 'spinning dead' as a renewable power source? I'd have thought it would be quite easy. Rig up a former author with a horizontal axle, a few gears and a drive belt or two; rewrite their life's work in the style of your average tabloid journalist; and 'Bob's your mother's brother' a plentiful, renewable and clean energy source. Another global woe solved (I'm available for collecting my Nobel prize on most week days between six and ten).

Sky watching

Following the Veracruz-esque raptor movement logged 'up county' on Wednesday, I have spent each of the last two evenings sky watching. If you would like to partake of this new craze sweeping Gwent this is how:

1. gather together bins, mobile phone/wireless internet device (to disseminate the news when the rares start passing over), comfy chair and a sustaining beverage;
2. take the above out into your garden (back garden for the chattering classes, front for the working classes, either if you lack the other, on the pavement if you have neither);
3. locate that point in your garden with the greatest vista and place chair thereon;
4. sit down (ideally slightly reclining) and scan the heavens (top tip - alternate scanning with and without bins);
5. every 10 minutes or so partake of your chosen beverage (if there is a slight chill in the air I'd opt for a nice blended tea, if warm perhaps a Pimms or a glass of an obscure continental beer, Kazbegi p'raps);
6. should a local/national rarity pass overhead phone/email the news out without delay.

Thus far I've got to say the results have been a little disappointing, yesterday a not-to-be-mentioned-on-the-internet raptor and a Swallow were the highlights; today another not-to-be-mentioned-on-the-internet raptor (different to yesterday's), a Swift, a few high altitude hirundines (almost certainly House Martins) and an unknown passerine (approximately 5,000m above my head going north, probably a pipit, possibly a finch, definitely a bird) were the sum of my efforts. Oh well, I'll keep looking up.

[Edit - this isn't a new craze at all, I just found this photograph which purports to show Death and Antonius Block sky watching at a site close to modern day Falsterbo somewhen between 1271 and 1480. NB. notice that Death (a renowned stringer) is reaching for an American identification guide having just claimed Rough-legged Hawk Buteo lagopus sanctijohannis!]


Click on the pic for a slightly larger version.