Sinner!?

Has the proportion of 'in-betweeny' carbo/sinensis cormorants in the UK increased beyond the 10% as per Newson (2000)? During those idle moments, when my attention is drawn to the lovely little fellas, I seem to come across a fair few which I'd suggest are best left unassigned (see below).

Given the vagaries of field observation, the drawing of little white lines on photographs and the holding of one's protractor up to a shiny-shiny Apple screen, at circa 78° this bird is very close, or quite possibly within, the 66-75° overlap zone. Presumably this individual is either at the bottom end of the range of sinensis, a hybrid, or possibly, an immature bird with an, as yet, incompletely developed pouch. Well that's cleared that up then.

PS. Obviously none of the above refers to birds seen in Gwent, that would imply something of ornithological interest occurring within the county, a ridiculous assertion at the best of times.

Predictable?

Couldn't help myself, got to Goldcliff pre-dawn and set about looking for the latest in this autumn's amazing run of megas*. Unfortunately, no flicker. Slightly more surprising, I was the only person down there; surely, however unlikely, the potential risk of missing a mega outweighs the, much much greater likelihood, that it would be a wasted morning. That said, I had to make do with 1 Redstart and 1-2 Reed Warblers in the hedgerows and 3 Wigeon, 3 Spotted Redshank, 1 Green Sandpiper, 4 Greenshank and 30 Snipe on the pools,... should have stayed in bed.

* So far Glossy Ibis, Little Whimbrel, Northern Flicker and Greenish Warbler have all been reported in, or within spitting distance of, Gwent this autumn, amazing huh? It's better than Fairly Vile round here.

Optimism dies

Another day, another visit to the NWR, a late afternoon/evening raid on Uskmouth/Farmfield this time. Still good numbers of Chiffchaff in the scrub plus a few Blackcap and Reed Warblers and a solitary Sedge Warbler. Several hundred Swallows, a fair number of House Martins and a few Sand Martin were overhead and a good proportion roosted; the Starling roost is also slowly building. None of the above attracted much in the way of raptor action though, just one Hobby made an unsuccessful pass at dusk, temporarily putting the hirundines off coming in.

So the weekend produced nothing really exciting, it would appear my, rather atypical, optimism was unfounded. Back to the tried and tested bitter, cynical and twisted outlook methinks.

A lot of effort for nuffin'

Another morning's ringing at Uskmouth; Blackcap and Chiffchaff were pretty dominant but a few Reed and one Sedge also rocked up in the nets. The Blackcaps included a partially albino bird with P1-3 on the left wing completely white and a partially white tip to P4. Movement overhead was pretty disappointing, only one Tree Pipit and a handful of Grey Wagtails made looking up worthwhile. I did hear a couple of snatches (yes, I said snatches) of Lesser Whitethroat song coming from the vague direction of Farmfield Lane, I'm assuming it was the real thing and not an MP3-toting 'birder'.

I'll be having lunch out of the office today dear

High tide at Goldcliff, home for a late lunch, then back out for an evening at Farmfield Lane. Wow! What a non-stop, whirly-gig, rollercoaster of a life I live. The high tide at Goldcliff would have been better but, not long after my arrival, a 1st-year female Peregrine decided to scare seven shades of merde out of the waders. This resulted in most of the small stuff doing a bunk before I'd had the pleasure of going through them. My own fault for turning up late and nattering on the first platform. After pottering around for a few hours I did manage to 'recover' 3 Spotted Redshank and 6 Greenshank but the remaining interest had to be provided by non-waders, the best of which were 2 Whinchat, 20 Yellow Wagtails, 4 Wheatear and 2 Rock Pipit. Apart from more of the common migrants, Farmfield was pretty quiet although a couple each of Little and Tawny Owl piped up at dusk.

PS. Too knackered right now but, if I don't remember, please remind me to tell you about the most blatant extra-marital fumblage that occurred at Goldcliff this lunchtime.

[Edit: forgot to mention 4 Avocets and, probably 'bird' of the day, a Clouded Yellow at Goldcliff]

Biker grove?

Hmmm, I wonder what these pictures mean? Let's take the bottom one, OK, it seems to be a graphical representation of a bicycle with a thick red line superimposed on it. Now, given generally accepted international standards in signage practice, I'm thinking the red line might suggest negativity with regard to the bicycle. If I just had to have a wild stab in the dark, I'd guess the message is something like "No bicycles" or "No riding of bicycles". Like I say, it's just a stab in the dark...

... it meant f*ck all to this fat twat mind.

Tonnes of Swallows going east or northeast over Saltmarsh/Farmfield this afternoon/evening; a Hobby had also noticed. In the hedgerows, half a dozen wobbler species and a Spotted Flycatcher kept things ticking over but the only other, even half-decent, species were Wheatear and Yellow Wagtail.

I believe the word is 'puerile'

No ibises,... yet

Shunned the Pembrey ibises, ambled down Saltmarsh and Farmfield Lanes, had a few Mipits going west and saw one or two Tree Pipits,... and that was about it. Lunchtime at Goldcliff Pools produced one juv Curlew Sandpiper, one Spotted Redshank and three Greenshanks (1 adult, 2 juvs) but, despite much positive thinking, no ibises.

I wonder if this sheep (one of Goldcliff's finest, I'm sure you'll agree) will gaze on a Glossy Ibis within the next day or two?

Not great but not bad

Thought today might produce a stonking seawatch off Pendeen, unfortunately, it just proved pretty good, not complaining though. Rough totals of the more noteworthy species included: 9 Sooty, 45 Balearic and shed loads of Manx Shearwaters, 3-4 Sabine's Gulls, 10 Grey Phalarope, 1 Pomarine and plenty of Arctic and Great Skuas, 1 Puffin, 1 Ocean Sunfish and 2 Basking Sharks. Slightly better than the average vigil at Goldcliff Point, but no mega. Did dream up a new way of avoiding the slightly awkward moment when it comes to departing a well-attended seawatch - leap to your feet, clutch all your stuff to your chest and scream "I've gawt blisters on me eye-balls!" before legging it to the car whilst imitating the gait of a Sanderling on a hot tin roof. Absolutely guaranteed to negate the need to go through the usual pleasantries of saying good-bye, and offering repeated apologies, as you step across in front of people's scopes.

As we were passing, it seemed churlish (bordering on the rude) not to drop in on the Baird's Sandpiper at Marazion. It had, apparently, been showing down to a few metres but, by the time we arrrived, it was getting regularly disturbed by the usual trickle of oblivious non-birders pottering along the shoreline in search of something to do with their, otherwise vacuous, lives.

As per the Baird's, we also thought we had better pay our collective respects to the Wilson's Phalarope at Exminster Marshes, a brief stop produced the bird and some excellent loosely-associated bovine action,... sweet.

Shelduck epic

More shelduck fun in the offing. Thanks to Keith Noble in Breconshire, the story rumbles on; Keith sent through a few photos of two birds that were seen at Brechfa Pool and Llangorse Lake in late April and June. Are these the recent Gwent birds?

The bird on the left appears to be a female Cape Shelduck although, my barely controllable hybrid inspired paranoia, does make me worry about one or two features, e.g. the hint of a pale collar. The bird on the right I do wonder about, it looks mostly Australian, however, I can't find any other photos of Australians with pale undertail coverts, whether this is due to immaturity (which might explain the general dullness and lack of collar), or hybridisation, or a combination of factors, I'm not 100% sure but I can't help erring towards hybrid.

I do wonder whether the female might be mostly Cape with a touch of Australian; and the male mostly Australian with a slightly heavier touch of Cape. Could Paradise be involved as well? Or has my paranoia just got the better of me? All comments gratefully received, especially from those who; a. are sat next to HBW volume 1; or b. saw the hybrid pair (and their offspring) that used to breed at QEII Res, Surrey (one bird was a Cape and the other was a hybrid, either Cape x Paradise, or Australian x Paradise); or c. are lucky enough to wander round WWT centres on a regular basis.

Just to add another layer of intrigue, if you go to Birdguides then 'pictures' then select 'Shelduck, Cape' from the species search menu (of which there are 19 piccies) look at the two pictures of three birds taken at Wyver Lane DWT, Derbyshire on 20th August last year. Despite the differences in colour production, that male looks rather odd and slightly familiar. Anyhoo, I'm off to lay down in a darkened room.

All photos supplied by Keith Noble.

PS. Promise this is the last of it - for a possible hybrid Cape x Ruddy click here,... wibble.