American Swallow-tailed Kite!!!

Have you seen this?!

Oh me, oh my, what will those magical little isles turn up next?

PS. Are you thinking "Pity there isn't a little bit of background in these pics"? Then you are a very, very cynical birder and should be much more trusting,... no really, you should.

PPS. Remember, there is only one thing to do,... learn the language of the flea, earn their trust and breed with their women,... or something like that.

Wild swaaans

I am reliably informed one of the Bewick's in the Usk valley is the proud owner of an, as yet unread, colour ring. So, if you are swanning around between Llanllowell and Llangibby Bottom, keep 'em peeled.

Is it all a dream?

By the time I got to Goldcliff, the Glaucous Gull was parading up and down the far bank of the first lagoon, all very nice, if not the crippling views experienced earlier. A third Gwent tick in as many weeks, outrageous! I have two competing (though not mutually exclusive) theories for this unprecedented run of good(ish) birds: 1. we are using up all our 'good bird credit' in January and the rest of 2009 will break records for ornithological turgidity; or 2. I am actually laying on an intensive care ward in a boredom induced coma and what I am experiencing as half decent birding in Gwent is just a complex neurological reaction to the drugs they are giving me in a valiant attempt to bring me round (a la 'Life on Mars'). Only time will tell which is true,... stay tuned for the next gripping installment...


Pesky gull kept gettting in the way of my cutting edge Lapwing photography.


How to miss seeing a Glaucous Gull fly over your heads by counting Snipe on the back lagoon.

The tide is high but I'm holding on

Given the number of years it has been knocking around, and as it's the closest thing we have to local avian celebrity (especially now the Ring-necked Duck appears to have shuffled off this mortal coil and joined the anatidaen choir invisible) I for one (or two, depending on how the pills are working) think this bird should be invested with a moniker. If our little leucistic friend had been male I'd have suggested 'The Lapwing with no name' or 'Blondie' but, as she is of the feminine persuasion, I'm thinking Deborah (Debbie to her friends). All those in favour say "Aye".

The right duck

A quick visit to Goldcliff turned up the Green-winged Teal on the back of the 1st lagoon. At first sleeping on the far edge, it soon woke and proceeded to join in with a small group of 'normal' Teal displaying to any passing female that would stop to watch,... bad boy, dirty boy, to your room!

The Ring-billed Gull was missing from Lamby and the Lesser Scaup evaded detection at Cardiff Bay (though Slavonian Grebe, Greater Scaup, Goosander and Chiffchaff did show); the Cosmeston Bearded Tit wasn't so coy and, as per, paraded around like the little attention whore it is.

Lesser, Common and Arctic Redpoll showed spiffingly at Cardiff Museum, albeit rather stiffly in boxes with neat little labels attached, but they did show.

The wrong American duck

That 'Weekend Birder' has struck again. Off I head for a day out in Berkshire/Surrey when, whilst watching the Yankee Wigeon at Lower Farm GPs, the phone rings - Green-winged Teal, Goldcliff, county first. All chipperness garnered from having found the americana bobbing before me evaporated (not that I'd usually draw chip from following someone else's directions to a long-staying duck but it was not the standard piece-of-pissery I thought it might be, due to woeful planning and an equally woeful lack of navigation aids the previous 30 mins had witnessed the birth of a new sport 'orientbirding'). Luckily, I then remembered I couldn't give a tinker's cuss about my Gwent list and spent the rest of the afternoon trying to think of an Olympic sport beginning with 'n' (not including netball), a type of soup beginning with 'e', a car model beginning with 'o' (but not Orion, Omega or Octavia [was there a Audi Orifice?]) and a singer beginning with 'x'.

The passing of patio doors

Was rearranging my burgeoning collection of dark, fuzzy and largely unused photographs last night when I stumbled over my first ever digiscoping attempt. Despite complete mastery of the Coolpix 775, scope and patio door combination the result was a little disappointing. Of course, seven years, fours cameras and two patio doors later it is all so very different (e.g. see here). Where did all those patio doors go?

Phew! II

So, the government decide the business/city (that infallible institution) is more important than the environment (see here); the current state of play in Gaza is 1000+ Palestinian dead (including over 300 children) vs. 13 Israeli dead (including three civilians); and Kaka is on his way to Man City. Thank jumpin' Jeebus for that, for a moment there (although I couldn't tell you which moment) I thought the world had decided to grow-up but no, once again, we can all sleep easy, safe in the knowledge everyone on this planet is a f*cking moron,... and r-e-l-a-x.

PS. Since you can't trust anyone further than you can throw them, and in the spirit of journalistic transparency (now there's a novel idea), all figures relating to Gaza above originate from The Ministry of Health in Gaza (as quoted by the BBC) who have said 1,013 people have died (including more than 300 children and 76 women) and more than 4,500 people have been injured, of whom 1,600 are children and 678 are women (isn't it quaint that women get a special mention, I was labouring under the misapprehension the sexes were equal nowadays). Thirteen Israelis have been killed, including three civilians and one soldier from rockets fired from Gaza and nine soldiers killed in fighting in Gaza.
Wait a minute my 'PS' is longer than my post, well if you need any further evidence that 'brevity is the soul of wit' you know where I am.

PPS. Score one point and award yourself a Gwentbirding gold star if you noticed the oblique Woody Guthrie reference.

Phew!

So, the Steller's Eider was a hoax and the Nutcracker seems to have been a Starling, thank jumpin' Jeebus for that, for a moment I thought Wales had turned into a mega mecca. Once again, we can all sleep easy, safe in the knowledge all the good birds are somebody else's problem,... and r-e-l-a-x.

Glamorgan calling

I finally gave in to the draw of the Lesser Scaup this morning; the bird was (for the most part) sleeping amongst the Tufteds at the afterthought of a nature reserve on the edge of the former Taff/Ely Estuary SSSI. Didn't manage to see any Greater/normal/bulk standard Scaup or the Slavonian Grebe, but one shouldn't get greedy, and I did get to see a Mute Swan fly headlong into a buddleia so it wasn't all bad.


Dropped in on Lamby Way on the way back, got more views of the 2nd-winter Ring-billed Gull and a pristine adult Med Gull dropped in making all the Black-heads look just a little bit grubby. The 1st-winter Ring-bill and Bittern avoided detection but I did get to meet a certain world-renowned birding dog.


Peterstone Gout was worse than useless, in fact it was worse than my garden which turned up Blackcap.