Home time

'Coming home day' is always shite, today was no exception. Actually it was even more shite than usual including, as it did, such gems as:

"Oh bollocks, I've given you directions to the wrong site"; and,
"I wonder whether Malaga has a category C population of Barbary Dove".

*sob*

PS. What the hell happened to the weather whilst I was away?!

La Lantejuela

Twenty-four Great Bustards, just a single Little Bustard (cracking male mind), one Black-shouldered Kite, one Lesser Flamingo (must check whether this bird turned up as a juvenile), tonnes of Lesser Kestrels and harriers plus a monster Ladder Snake were the highlight of a day out on the plains.

[NB. Forgot to mention, the Great Bustards were displaying,... which was nice.]

Hey bully bully!

Mouflon and Otter were probably the highlights today, that and the caramel liqueur we bagged post-fodder.

Piece of puss

Iberian Lynx - on my list. What a peach of a beastie, watched for a few minutes at about 500 metres range (nice scope views); seemed to be looking for a snack whilst being half-heartedly mobbed by a couple of Magpies. Definitely 'bird' of the trip.

Supporting cast - Black Vulture, Spanish Imperial Eagle, Short-toed Eagle, Blue Rock Thrush, Black Wheatear,... blah, blah, blah, False Smooth Snake, Midwife Toad, blah, blah, blah...

In order to maintain the hirundine theme...

I am un... chien Andalucia

Several thousand Greater Flamingo, White Stork, Griffon Vulture, Booted Eagle, Black Kite, Montagu's Harrier, Black-winged Stilt, Collared Pratincole, Kentish Plover, Gull-billed and Whiskered Tern, Pallid Swift, Great Spotted Cuckoo, Bee-eater, Roller, Crested and Short-toed Lark, Red-rumped Swallow, three subspecies of Yellow Wagtail, Woodchat Shrike, Spotless Starling and Azure-winged Magpie; plus Spanish Terrapin and Iberian Hare. And that's just the drive from the airport to the site,... without breaking a sweat,... not Gwent,... definitely not Gwent.

Swallows in the sunshine,... lovely.

Movement

Bumped into Black Redstart and Willow Warbler at Oldbury today; still haven't connected with LRP, Sand Martin, Swallow, etc. Perhaps a change of scene might do the trick...

A day for laying down and avoiding

Thanks to a pincer movement of (the usual) fisherfolk and a couple of (less usual) metal-detecting-types, Ynys-y-Fro was more-or-less devoid of interest this morning. The brief pre-match soiree failed to deliver a single spring migrant,... there were no highlights.

The lamby way

Dried out, warmed-up and, eventually, picked-up by a distraught mother, this little bleater rueeened [Eh?!] my Saturday morning [Rueeened? Really? Oh, come on!].

NB. It would be best to view the picture at 100%, the scaling down of the image rueeens the text [You know what? I'm just going to ignore you].

[Say 'roo']
[Roo]
[Say 'in']
[In]
[Say 'ruin']
[Rueeen]

Birding Tulgey Wood

Dodo, Greater Flamingo, Yellowhammer (heard only) and Jubjub Bird; Wonderland produces the goods once again. Can't see me paying the extra for the 3D version next time though. If a film has a half-decent story and cast then the 3D is just pointless gimmickry; naturally, if a film is a useless mishmash of computer effects and dumbed down tale of pseudo-environmental shire then I'm sure the 3D helps paper over the cracks (although, seemingly, not well enough to win a decent Oscar).

A hint of a trickle

Had three Chiffchaff at Uskmouth, two of which were singing; not an awful lot else on the migrant passerine front though. Notables at Goldcliff included Ruff, Spotted Redshank, Greenshank and Green Sandpiper. Managed to miss both Wheatear and Sand Martin but I did have students in tow, so I do have an excuse.