Spineless

Lots of invertebrates out and about, hordes (well mini-hordes) of Peacocks, Small Tortoiseshells and bumblebees today. 

Had the first two bumblebees in the garden on 23rd February this year, seemingly with one each of Bombus terrestris (rich/dark yellow bands and a buff tail) and B. lucorum agg. (pale yellow bands and a clean white tail) appearing on the heather.  Both were accompanied by mites, the B. terrestris queen being well and truly infested, yuck/ewww, or so you would think, although, according to the Bumblebee Conservation Trust (BCT) website:

"... most of the mite species that live with bumblebees are fairly harmless to them and are simply clinging to the bumblebee so that they can be transported to new nests. When in the nest, the mites usually feed upon the wax, pollen, nest debris, and other small insects, so do not feed on the bees."

So perhaps just meh.

 White-tailed Bumblebee B. lucorum agg. This 'species' is actually a complex of three cryptic species B. lucorum, B. cryptarum and B. magnus. The tricky little buggers. 

Buff-tailed Bumblebee B. terrestris

More on bumblebees on the BCT website here; at the Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society website here; and on the Natural History Museum website here.

Riveting

Went to Ynys-y-fro on Sunday, saw the Goldeneye, a Skylark flew over, waited three days, wrote a compelling blogpost about my experience.

The king is dead! Long live the king!

 Haven't quite got the hang of this phonescoping malarky just yet,...

... that's got it.  Another nail in the coffin of the compact camera.

Two visits to Ynys-y-fro in two days.  I must be ailing for something. 

Day one.  The greyest of grey days.  One Goldeneye, an 11.1% increase in the Mute Swan population (from 9 to 10) and an all encompassing, penetrating moistness falling from the sky. 

Day two.  Much sunlight, vitamin D, high spirits.  The gentle descent to the reservoir is interrupted by a Merlin appearing from the direction of Fourteen Locks, briefly perching up and then heading NW.  Ynys-y-fro mega!  Then, as quickly as ornithological excitement appeared, it evaporated.  One Goldeneye, the usual flotilla of Little Grebe and a 50+% drop in Pochard.  Yawn.  Home.  Luncheon.

Urgh! Larid

Had a day out on the Gower on Friday.  A five hour larid focused vigil produced the putative Thayer's Gull, a large 'white-winger' (that seems to have been a huge Kumlien's Gull), 1-2 Mediterranean Gulls and a dose of Kittiwake (including a few heavily oiled birds).  Bobbing about in the background were 100s of distant Common Scoters, a few Red-throated Divers, Guillemot, Razorbill and Fulmar, and a Porpoise.

The putative Thayer's Gull; my guess is this bird could yet disappear into the pale Thayer's-Thayer's/Kumlien's intergrade-dark Kumlien's morass but a characteristic looking beast all the same. All images c/o Tom Chinnick.

We wrote this bird off as a Glaucous hybrid (somebody else reported it as pure Glaucous), didn't even consider Kumlien's, mainly due to size, it was chunkier than most of the Herrings on the beach, it also had quite an 'aggressive' looking head shape, quite coarse streaking at the sides of the neck/breast and a slightly odd bill.  Of course, on Saturday it appears this bird was reported as Kumlien's,... [Or maybe not, see comments below.]
   

... oh well, it's good to duff something every now and then. By the way, this was not the bird reported as Kumlien's on Friday.

Ynys-y-fro update

Two trips within a week or so,... one Goldeneye,... one bleedin' Goldeneye.

The greatest show on earth

Peered outside every now and then. Saw two wet pigeons. Decided that was more than enough. Stayed indoors. Birding in Gwent. The greatest show on earth.     

Kill the cake. Cut its throat.

Two days of venturing into the field.  Caldicot Moor, Magor Marsh and Boat Lane yesterday and the incomparable Ynys-y-fro Reservoir today.  And what do we have to show for our efforts?  Not. A. Lot.  Precisely zero Golden Plover with the c.400 strong flock of Lapwing on Caldicot Moor.  Very little at Magor Marsh except a female Stonechat.  One Golden Plover over the grasslands near Boat Lane.  And finally, one male Goosander, one female Goldeneye, two female Teal and three Shoveler at Ynys-y-fro.  Birding in Gwent is not a megafest right now,... no, no, no, it's not, it isn't and it ain't. 

Back to the cake and the chocolates,...

Look! We’ve killed a cake—we stole up on it—we got in a circle—we crept up—the cake squealed—we hit the cake—I fell on top—I cut the cake’s throat,... you should have seen it!

Watery heavens and Ls

Visited what could/should be two of Gwent's premier wetlands today, Llandegfedd Reservoir and the lower valley of the River Usk.  No sign of the reported diver sp. at the reservoir and little else of note except five Goldeneye and the emerging skeletal form of Dwr Cymru's new visitor/watersports centre.  A visit to most of the vantage points along the valley between Usk and Newbridge-on-Usk didn't produce as much as it should have either; despite all the flooding, the highlights were just a healthy dose of common larid and five Bewick's Swans.  If the Usk Valley was managed as a nature reserve/flood alleviation area/carbon sink it would be a flipping gem of a site. 

The moist valley bottom of the River Usk as seen looking east from Llandowlais (click on the image for the larger version).  On the opposite side sits Llanllowell, a hamlet with more Ls than houses.  Also dotted along this stretch are Llanusk, Llanbadoc, Llantrisant and Llangibby.  According to local legend, all the Ls originated from place names further upstream, torn from their towns and villages during a prehistoric flood and, in some cases, borne hundreds of miles on the torrent before being washed up where the valley widened and the river's mind began to wander.  I guess this explains the comparative lack of Ls in Gilwern and Govilon, and why it was necessary for the English to add a second L to Crickhowell.  Of course, the tale does raise questions regarding the origin of the valley's voiceless alveolar lateral fricatives, I mean, all these places have got them and they can't have had them before.  Did they survive the trip adhered to each storm-tossed letter?  Are they the natural result of two unprotected Ls rubbing up against one another?  Are there invisible swarms of them in the Welsh skies silently waiting to alight whenever two Ls are placed in close proximity?  We may never know, someone should do a PhD on this sort of thing and find out.

Random crap to fill the void

The top few strata of my ever-growing mountain of Nikwax® Analogy® and Parameta®, Pertex® Endurance, GORE-TEX® Pro, Pontetorto® Tecnopile® Double and Tecnostretch®, eVent®, etc., etc. [Are there enough ®s there?] 

As some smug anonymous git once said,

"There's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing."

Or, as I often say,

"It's only Gwent out there, just stay indoors in the warm and dry."

[Note: currently 'top-of-the-pile' is my Paramo Velez Adventure Light Smock; it's the bees bollocks, ethically produced, lifetime guaranteed, warm, dry, rustle-free and it makes you look like you're in the army,... squeeeeee!  And that, ladles and gentlespoons, is the closest you'll ever get to 'as endorsed by Gwentbirding'.] 

Lunchtime cutie

A pre-lunch tweet from the Newport Wetland Reserve's "resident expert" [Don't blame me, that's what it says here] put in train the usual febrile chain of events that, via a rapid passage through a speed smeared landscape (complete with the scootage of roundabouts and the emergency application of the amber light rule*), soon saw one applying the brakes at the location of a nice new shiny bird for one's Gwent list. And it looked a bit like this,...

A rather attractive male Penduline Tit in the sun, the first to have knowingly graced a Gwentish Bulrush.

A rather attractive male Penduline Tit in the gloom. It's in there,... somewhere.

* The amber light rule: every light on a standard UK traffic light is amber or immediately adjacent to amber and, under emergency conditions and by applying the undeniable truth that you can only be 'one colour out', can be treated as amber.