Twilight of the,... err,... everything really

The Borders in the gloaming; the gloaming in the Borders.

In reiver country for much of the last week.  The ranks of alien conifers and denuded hillsides beyond are all but devoid of Black Grouse; atop the ridge the peaty-puddled heathery plateau is free of Hen Harrier; and the carbon dioxide in the sky above is tipping the balance at 400 ppm.

Take a bow everybody,... take a bow.

Rude bunny

A baby rabbit sticking its tongue out at the camera,... as they often do.

Gobble, gobble.

Female Lapwing looking a little bit 'down'.  It must be something to do with those great big eyes (and the tremulous cries) but they always seem to wear their emotions on their sleeve don't they.

Now that we can expect all those Tory promises to come to fruition, especially as those pesky Liberals aren't there to rein in the really loopy right-wingers, I have been through the Tory manifesto to pick out the stuff relevant to the local birder (all direct quotes from the 'little blue book'),...

1. "We will provide fuck-all leadership on climate change, we will do the bare-arse minimum as long as it doesn’t cost us (or our multi-national corporate pals) anything."
2. "We will continue to water down environmental protection measures, you wanna build a housing estate on a SSSI? Crack on! We might even drop all that pesky European legislation. SPAs? SACs? Fuck that foreign guff."
3. "On airport expansion, we say 'More planes, fuck yeah!' We might even build a landing strip in the middle of an estuary! We’re plane bonkers."
4. "We will start all manner of new road building schemes because one motorway from A to B is never enough. The Gwent Levels? We’ll level Gwent alright."
5. "We will fuck over the renewable energy industry because: a. now they want to put turbines in Tory constituencies and we can’t have that; and b. our friends in the oil, coal and gas sector give us bigger cheques."
6. "There will be more tax breaks for North Sea oil and gas. Looking after our ‘friends in the north’."
7. "Fracking? Frack yeah! We're gonna frack under your house. We're gonna frack your water supply. We are fracking mad for it."
8. "Badger, Fox and Hen Harrier culling will be made Olympic events. Tally ho!"

Fortunately, none of the above should unduly worry anyone because they are promising to "look after the economy".  Unfortunately, whilst you might think this will mean you and your family will be better off, it actually means their mates in the multi-national corporations can just get back to harvesting what is left of our natural resources, collective wealth and human capital.  Oops!

So, anyhooooo,... you just run along now, get back in your cage, gorge yourself on the lies, page three girls, celebrity gossip and footy in your paper; run up your credit card bill and pay your mortgage.  Stand aside and, whilst you stare at your shiny new mobile phone, allow the city boys to rape the planet. Feel free to gawp over the 24 hour loop-the-loop news coverage of the spluttering, guttering death of the welfare system.  It'll all be alright, it's not like you or your family will be needing the NHS or an environment anyway because you invested in that magical spaceship you keep in the shed and when it gets really bad you can just pop down the garden and,...

WHOOOOOOOSH!

Well done you. That is some impressive foresight you showed there,... and you are in no way a turkey that just voted for Christmas. 

Gobble.

PS. Two Turnstone, a Barwit, five Blackwit, 360 Dunlin, 10+ Ringed Plover, etc., at Goldcliff.

Foghorn longhorn

Somebody… ah say somebody… knocked.  What’s the big… ah say,… what’s the big idea knocking on my door?!  You’re a moth son,… moths don’t knock on doors!  This boys making more noise than a couple of skeletons on a tin roof.  I’m trying to have my breakfast boy, you’re taking the food right outta my mouth… I don’t go round flitting about lights,… listen to me boy… pay attention when I’m talking to ya,… now you stay away from doors and I’ll stay away from lights.  You're not payin' attention boy!

Nice moth but he’s got more nerve than a bum tooth.  Hey that’s a joke son,… ah say a joke,… don’t ya geddit?

Nematopogon swammerdamella, neither particularly good looking nor rare as 'longhorn' moths go but a great one to know next time you’re playing scrabble.

Bring da rain

Three early mornings at Uskmouth and Goldcliff, one breezy, one moist, one flipping moist.  Apart from a single Grasshopper Warbler, a couple of Cuckoo and a Curlew Sandpiper, very little of note.

The highlight of the weekend thus far was my attempt to drown a group IDCD* punters.  Failed miserably though, they all survived the deluge, some of them even appearing to enjoy the trial by water.  Foiled again.   

[Enter witty caption about weather and ducks.]

* International Dawn Chorus Day, more information at http://www.idcd.info/ 

HUDWIT!!!

An underwing of pure velvety blackness. 

Left home to do a Firecrest survey,... ended up bombing over to Meare Heath for a stonking all-of-the-whole-wide-world tick.  What a flipping beauty, showed really well, performed a couple of flypasts and then plonked itself down more-or-less as close as it could get to the assembled twitch.  What a jolly well-behaved bird.  A half-decent, albeit largely predictable, supporting cast was racked up too: Great White Egret, Bittern, Marsh Harrier, Hobby, Wood Sandpiper,...  

Popped in on Goldcliff on the way home: 10 Barwit [all three godwits on the British list in a day, how terribly satisfying], 3 Blackwit, 3 Spotshank, 2 White Wagtail, etc.  Also distant flight views of two of the plastic Cranes.

PS.  Does anyone know anything about the Little Gull reported from the "Newport Wetlands" this afternoon?  "Newport Wetlands" doesn't really narrow it down much.

Addendum: details on the Little Gull via GOS site "Goldcliff [...] 2nd-summer, flew in and landed on 1st lagoon briefly before flying off north-east".

Stone-curlew

Having vanquished the über bogey that was Pied Flycatcher, I thought it might be a bit much to expect another patch tick this spring.  But no!  Goldcliff produces another wader, albeit a rather odd one.  Flipping Stone-curlew, get in! 
 

 The view throughout the afternoon.  Not great.  It's,... it's in the rushes.

 And then, rather predictably, it came out to play at dusk.

 Ended up coming reasonably close.  Which was handy for the patient few and/or wily types who rocked up late in the day.

Though not doughnut distance,... and it was dark,... hence the gawd awful pics.

By the way, the bird was/is colour-ringed and seems to have been ringed in 2010 at Porton Down on the Wiltshire/Hampshire border.  Thanks to Messrs Rylands and Tomalin for the rapid provision of information. 

"Are they still there?"

Three hours at Goldcliff, all three notable for their distinct lack of proper migrants.  Copious amounts of rain fell but neither LRP, Sand Martin nor Wheatear had bothered to drop in.  A (non-singing) Chiffchaff tried, and failed, to give the impression that nature's twice yearly spectacle was underway but I had to make do with a reasonable array of waders and wintering hangers-on.  The waders included 11 Bar-tailed Godwit, six Ruff, three Knot, three Spotted Redshank, two Greenshank, three Grey Plover and just the one (count 'em) Ringed Plover.  On the winter visitor front, the female Merlin was probably the best.

At Boat Lane the semi-notables included another (non-singing) Chiffchaff, one of Marsh Harriers and a few more Black-tailed Godwits.

Two Pintails managing to maintain their elegant air despite the dreich and the appearance overhead of wingèd death.

NB. The 'they' in the titular enquiry referred to Avocet,... and yes,... yes, they are still there. 

Exalted among the heathen

A lone deciduous Scot surrounded by legions of innumerable coniferous aliens.

[Addendum: Dear Google Adsense, What. Are. You. On. About?!]

Angels of death

A few images of the five Glaucous Gulls and some of their friends that were knocking about Ponta Delgada harbour last week.  Came to bread like your average Aylesbury.  As ever, click on the images for slightly larger versions.

"Big ones, small ones, some as big as your head..."

Lovely bit of photo-bombing by a first-winter 'Azores Gull'.

A different oooooge great big one.

Second-winter angel of death.

One or two birds showed a reasonable amount of head streaking producing a slightly hooded effect,...

... but the general impression of all five individuals was of uniformly pale birds, perhaps they'd spent their winter in a bleaching southerly sun.  Feather mites were apparent on at least a couple of the birds.

Contrasted beautifully with the local volcanic rock, nice little test of the new camera's dynamic range.